~I need potatoes, bread, and a few other essentials from the store.
~There is a friend's birthday this week that I cannot forget!
~Wash the load of laundry that has been sitting in the washer all weekend.
~There are several hand written notes that need to be finished today.
~We have soccer and ballet tonight.
~Water the indoor plants.
~Why is LOVE so hard? Impossible even.
Last night I sat in a room full of precious and typical 8th-12th grade girls.
I wish I could say that there was rousing conversation.
Truthfully the room was unusually quiet.
Our topic was LOVE.
Not the love we like to talk about for hours.
It was God's version of love.
Hard stuff.
We cracked open 1 Corinthians 13 and began listening to God's instructions to us about how we show love.
The list is flat out impossible.
Patient. Kind. Not proud, boastful, or rude. Keeps no record of wrongs. Does not demand its own way. It is not irritable.
These are just a few of the characteristics of God's version of love.
Honestly....I don't make it past patient.
God's love for us is such a gift.
I doubt many of us really fathom the depth of it. I know I don't.
On my worst most wicked day~ HE is crazy about me. He is for me. His thoughts toward me out number the grains of sand on all the beaches in all the world.
How on earth can we comprehend such love?
But our comprehension or lack thereof doesn't change the truth of it. He loves us. Mind-blowing crazy loves us.
We could talk of this all day long. Am I right?
It's what He asks of us that makes us hugely uncomfortable.
Silence hangs in the air because not only can we NOT do it on our own. We don't even WANT to do it.
Listen to the words of Luke. He is challenging us to be so utterly different from those around us. The world would be in awe if we really lived this out....
"But if you are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for the happiness of those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on the cheek, turn the other cheek. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give what you have to anyone who asks you for it; and when things are taken away from you, don't try to get them back. Do for others as you would like them to do for you.
Do you think you deserve credit merely for loving those who love you? Even the sinners do that! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, is that so wonderful? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, what good is that? Even sinners will lend to their own kind for a full return.
Love your enemies! Do good to them!" (Luke 6:27-35)
This is essentially the gospel.
Jesus loved me when I was his enemy.
He did good for me.
He gave his life.
He knew I could never repay him.
This flies in the very face of our pride.
I want to make out a list of all of my exceptions to this rule. But God doesn't grant exceptions.
Hanging on to my grudges and bitterness makes me feel validated.
But it also diminishes my capacity to love and make any kind of difference for Jesus Christ.
So what do I want more???
I must choose.
Do I want validation or do I want to love?
Some days I choose the former and I regret the outcome. I become one raw irritated nerve that no one wants to be around. But the days that I choose the latter....there are never any regrets.
It is hard. So very hard. But right.
Love is the greatest (and hardest) thing.
My middle little turned 10 years old last week. I am well aware of the years that lay ahead of her. Middle and high school can be brutal. Girls haven't stopped being mean and I remember it well.
However if she can KNOW the depth of God's love for her....
Then loving others is a real possibility.
I pray she is far ahead of where I was at her age.
If someone was mean to me...I was mean back.
If someone talked bad about me....I couldn't wait to return the favor.
What if I had been different?
Who knows?
Although I think she is the prettiest 10 year old I know....I want her to be pretty on the inside.
That, my friends, takes A LOT of character building.
Think about what built your character the most.
For me....it was the hard lessons.
Being left out made me understand rejection. Getting hurt helped me gain compassion. Walking alone helped me appreciate real friends.
I don't want her to suffer rejection, pain, loss, betrayal, and meanness. But I do want her to be kind, compassionate, grateful and generous.
She may have to feel the sting of pain to gain what I cannot teach her.
God help me to love others. Especially my enemies. To do good to those who hate me. To pray for those who curse me. To turn the cheek that has been slapped and offer the other as well.
This is love. It speaks when nothing else will.
She will learn by watching what I do and how I live. Not what I say...
Oh God ~ help me.
