People who know me, know that I like routine and structure:
what can I say, I’m a creature of habit. This morning I did something a little
different on my way in to work; instead of listening to my familiar songs on my
radio I threw on some songs of gospel praise….and guess what? I started
thinking about God’s love and How He demonstrates it to and for us and I began
to just quietly cry at the magnitude and the spans of it all.
After I got my thoughts together I began to reflect on some
ways that love was demonstrated and spoken of in my daily life. I once had
someone tell me, in anger “Sometimes love is not enough!” I’ve had people say
they “don’t understand it….” I've seen
domestic violence, comforted people who have been crushed by infidelity, spoken
to people who were content with being in a position that compromises them and
their integrity….I could go on but I believe you get the gist.
Now, let me first get into this by saying…I am by NO MEANS a
saint, nor have I been without fault, flaw and shame on this subject of love. I
used to pride myself in the fact that I NEVER cheated on anyone that I was
involved with….I recently discovered that this is THE BIGGEST LIE I ever told
myself. I cheated on my greatest love GOD! I allowed anything and everything to
take me away from my redeemer and my sustainer. I was happy to give those
titles to whomever and whatever had my heart. I now fully understand the
Scripture Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for
everything you do flows from it.
What I really want to talk about is: What if God treated
love as cheaply and nonchalantly as we treat it? What if He subscribed to “love
is not enough”? What if He was subject to serve based on how He felt? What if
He had to know everything before He acted? – Jesus’ most human moment for me is
when He is in the Garden of Gethsemane Matthew 26 …38 Then He said to them,
"My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep
watch with Me."39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face
and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from
Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." 40 And He came to the
disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "So, you men could
not keep watch with Me for one hour?
Two things happened in these three verses –
First: Jesus showed
His humanity. In His human moment He
spoke fear and lack of understanding…yet He resolved to operate in faith (the
ultimate demonstration)
Second: The disciples demonstrated how we walk and yield to
the flesh on a regular basis. How can you and why do we sleep when we know that
we’re on the cusp of something epic? Why do we allow things to distract us?
If you’re unsure of what love is, and believe me we are so
far off the path that we are recreating Sodom and Gomorrah, read 1 Corinthian
13
If I speak in the
tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a
clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and
understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as
to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give
away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have
not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient
and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or
rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or
resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices
with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes
all things, endures all things.
8 Love never
ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease;
as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and
we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial
will pass away.11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like
a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now
we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then
I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith,
hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
It’s a selfish act to tell someone how, when and why to love
you………just be open to it, say thank you, reap the blessing and watch how your
love will grow as a result.
How ya’ livin’?
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