It's ALL About Love

Fill in the blank of this famous song:

They will know we are Christians by our ____________.

A) WWJD Bracelets    B) Picket Signs    C) Politics    D) Love

I REALLY hope you know the correct answer is D) Love.  Unfortunately, many Christians show everything BUT love.

Why is this?  What happened to love, to OUR love?  How was it replaced with malice, envy, selfishness, pride, and self-righteousness?  Aren’t we, above all things, supposed to show God’s love to the world?  So why don’t we?   

Here’s what I’ve discovered:

Jesus replied, “‘LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘LOVE your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt 22:37-39)*   LOVE God.  Not obey, not serve, not worship, although those are important, but first and foremost we must LOVE God.

“A new command I give you: LOVE one another.  As I have loved you, so YOU MUST LOVE one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you LOVE ONE ANOTHER.” (John 13:34-35)  Jesus loves us and He loves them, therefore we must love.  Not scold, not judge, not disrespect, not shun, not diminish, not vilify.  Not even serve or tolerate or encourage, although those are important.  Love others.  Just do it.  Period.  It’s not a suggestion, not an option.  It’s a command.  

Paul goes so far as to say: “Do everything in love.^” (1 Cor 16:14)  Not some things, not convenient things, not important things, but EVERY thing.

We are designed to love, to give love and receive love, to love God, to love our fellow man.  We are motivated by love, changed by love, healed by love.  Yet we often don't live it.  

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if we don’t love, if we are not consciously making an effort to speak in love, to think in love, to listen in love, to obey in love, to BE love--first, foremost and above all--then don’t even bother.  We will do more harm than good.  If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but DO NOT HAVE LOVE, I am ONLY A RESOUNDING GONG or a CLANGING CYMBAL.   If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but DO NOT HAVE LOVE I AM NOTHING.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but DO NOT HAVE LOVE, I GAIN NOTHING.” (1 Cor 13:1-3)  Without love, we are nothing.  Not even very little.  We are nothing without love.

What does love look like?  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.  (Matthew 25:35,36)  Love looks like kindness, caring, nurturing, providing.  It looks like and is sacrifice.  Food costs money.  Nurturing and caring cost vulnerability and compassion.  Providing costs convenience and comfort.  Love costs time and often pain. Is this what our lives, our DAILY lives, look like? 

Whom are we to love?  I tell you, LOVE YOUR ENEMIES and pray for those who persecute you. (Matt 5:44)  It’s easy to love those who love us.  We must love beyond the easy and expected to the difficult and unexpected.  We must love the unlovable.  Period.

Here’s the kicker:  Love is impossible.  It’s impossible because we cannot love enemies and persecutors on our own.  Oh, sure, we can mostly love our spouse and kids pretty well, maybe our families and our friends, but real love, perfect love, true love, is beyond our human capabilities.  Only God can fill our hearts with his love, and He longs to.  I WILL GIVE you a NEW HEART and put a new spirit in you; I WILL REMOVE from you your heart of stone and give you A HEART OF FLESH. (Ezekiel 36:26) 

How do we know if we are living God’s love?  Here’s the Gold Standard Checklist.  Insert your name in the blank:  __________ is patient.  __________ is kind.  _________ does not envy.  __________ does not boast.  __________ is not proud.  __________ does not dishonor others.  __________ is not self-seeking.  __________ is not easily angered.  __________ keeps no record of wrongs.  __________ does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.  __________ always protects.  __________ always trusts.  __________ always hopes.  __________ always perseveres.  __________ never fails.  (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) 

Ah.  I hear a few Ouches.  I felt some, too.  We all have areas needing improvement.  God can improve us, heal us, help us to love as He loves.  We must let Him. 

My friends, this is a call to arms—to open arms.  To tender hearts.  Now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language.   Don’t lie to each other…  Put on your new nature… you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you... Above all, CLOTHE YOURSELVES WITH LOVE, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:8-14)

Above all, love each other deeply, because LOVE COVERS OVER a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)  Love not only covers our sins, but theirs as well.  It is the most powerful force in the Universe. 

And if we love as God loves?  What then?  "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)  That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

So yes, they will know we are Christians by our love: Our love for the unlovable.  Our love for the sandpaper people we all are (anyone ever rub you the wrong way?).  Our love for the poor, the rich, the victim, the perpetrator, the politically-opposite, the hostile, the abused, the abuser, the friend, the enemy.  Not with our love but with HIS Love, which He will generously give if we but ASK, RECEIVE and then CHOOSE TO GIVE.

It’s a win-win all the way around.  LOVE, my friends.  LOVE.    

*All emphases mine

Getting My Guard Up

I have started and deleted this post MANY times over the last few weeks.  

Even now it is very difficult to sit and write because I'm not quite "there" yet.  I haven't mastered this lesson.  The worst part is, in this lifetime, I never will.  But that said, here goes nothing.  For about the eleventh time.  I hope it makes any kind of sense.

God has really been working on cleaning out and healing my heart and mind since about February.  As much as I'm enjoying my newly-found freedoms, He started with the easier areas first (see previous posts from the past 6 months).  

That means that we have gone from dusting tables to now dragging out the yucky, moldy, stinky, useless, disgusting junk in the basement.  (DISCLAIMER:  Just so we're clear, this is a picture of my heart, not the lowest level of my house.  Hmmmm...maybe this is why I've gone off Flylady and decluttering my house?  I guess I can only handle one cleaning binge at a time.) 

This is NOT my idea of fun.  Some of my scars have been with me so long I've considered having them apply for their own social security numbers.   

But that's the problem.  Jesus came to restore my heart, to heal it.  He doesn't want me (or you) to suffer any longer.  He especially doesn't want to leave anything the Enemy can use to his advantage.  He wants me (and you) healed, healthy and holy.  Deep down I want that, too.  But the process hurts, and it's hard.  It's not a magic-potion-once-and-for-all cure.  My only hope of that is Eternity.  But to grow closer to Him, to become every day more and more His Beloved, it has to be done.  *big sigh*

Right now, at this point in the battle, this is what it's about:

Proverbs 4:23  Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

These are the words I keep hearing over and over and keep repeating to myself every time junk comes up.  DEBBIE -- GUARD.  YOUR.  HEART.

Not shut my heart down.  Not close it off.  Not erect a high, impenetrable fortress.  While my heart needs to be well protected there must also be access, places for love and truth to move in and out.  My strong wall definitely needs a gate or two.   

I've always been open-hearted.  When I love I really, really love.  My heart really can contain a wellspring of life.

But it must bubble up pure water.  I have to stop letting pollutants in.  I need to be careful and watch what I allow into my heart.  Not just from the outside world, but from my own mind as well.

How do I do this?  I'm still working a lot of that out.  But here are my best weapons so far: 

2 Corinthians 10:5, We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Psalm 101:2b-3, I will walk in my house with a blameless heart.  I will set before my (*mind's) eyes no vile thing.  (*addition in parentheses mine)

John 8:31b-32, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."   (all emphasis mine)

When my mind starts to wander (which it does when I'm sad, anxious, lonely, frustrated, weak etc.  Basically throughout most of my day) I've got to take my thoughts captive and speak God's truth into them.  I have to choose, moment by moment,  to believe the truth and not the lie.  Even if I don't have all of the information about a situation, I have to remind myself of what I do know to be true and then wait for more information from God, scripture, circumstances or other people. 

The HUGE BONUS (and the best part) is, by guarding my heart, I am also guarding my husband's heart.  And my sons' hearts.  And my family's hearts.  And my friends'.  And those I minister with.  And those I minister to.   If I use God's truth to build the wall of protection around my heart then all those that I love and cherish will be protected, too.

Even though I will always struggle in this area,  I know that the weapons I familiarize myself with now will serve me well in the future. 

That sounds very freeing to me.

Color(s) of Love -- YOU Decide

A friend of mine posted a question: What color is love? I responded that I didn't think you could limit it to only one color. Later I elaborated on that theory:

When you let each other down love is blue. When you make each other smile it is yellow. When you're trudging together through the muck of life it is brown. When you honor each other it is a royal purple. During the many boring parts it is gray. When you are growing closer to each other love is green. Joyful times are a bright pink. When tempers flare love is orange. Love that is a decision to love as God loves us is white. Times of intense sadness are black. And red is, well, you can fill in your own blank. ;)

Agree? Disagree? I'd love to hear what you think.