Love--the kind of unselfish, completely selfless, sacrificial love that IS the God who is love--seems way too good to be true. I mean, in this day and age it seems like people won't even accept a compliment without looking for an ulterior motive. Its like the world has beaten us down to the point where we readily, easily believe anything negative but reject even the possibility of anything positive. But that's sin. Unbelief. Believing the lie. Walking by (natural) sight, not by faith. Looking AT the mirror and seeing all of our blemishes instead of looking INTO the mirror and seeing the inner man. The hidden man of the heart. Jesus. Here's the truth, guys, "...Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God's word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault." (Ephesians 5:25-27 NLT). And, just to be completely clear on this, He already died for us (and as us). He already washed us. We ARE holy and without fault. We ARE without spot, wrinkle, or any other blemish. We HAVE been conformed into the image of God's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. That doesn't need to happen. That happened 2,000 years ago on the cross. And, really, it happened before anything else happened. The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. Before there was ever a sinner, there was a Savior. So what we ought to do is stop looking AT ourselves (and each other), and disqualifying ourselves (and each other), and we ought to just let God love the hell out of us. We ought to just fill ourselves to overflowing with what He already filled us with. Himself. Love. Remember, all it took was one glace for us to see the grace in His eyes. For Him to capture us, enrapture us, enclose us in His love. And now we CAN walk with Him, get away with Him, experience and enjoy Him. Now we CAN learn how to love as we learn how we are loved. Now we can stop looking for ulterior motives when someone loves us. Because now we can understand that love doesn't HAVE a motive, love IS the motive. That's why we should be doing the things we are doing--because love made us do it. Because its in our heart to do it. Let love guide the way. Follow your heart. Trust your gut. The Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. And the Word is Jesus. The Word is love. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in YOUR flesh. Love in YOUR body. And as a father I can say this: God doesn't love anything more than He loves His Son. YOU, in other words. Because Jesus is your (and my) true identity. He IS that inner man. That hidden man of the heart. And when we let God ravish us with His love, and then (by receiving and releasing that gift) we turn around and ravish each other... that's when the secret comes out. That's when the hidden man of the heart is revealed. In you, and through you, and as you. That's when the Word becomes flesh. When love as an idea becomes charity--love in action. And the best part is that when it comes to receiving and releasing... we receive God love BY releasing it! We experience it when we share it. When we get it away. So, in a sense, when we ravish each other we ravish ourselves. When we love each other we love ourselves!

Its all about receiving and releasing. Receiving BY releasing. That's what Jesus was talking about in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." Because we can't love each other until we know and believe that God loves us. We can't give what we don't have. And we can only give what we do have. That's why hurt people hurt people. But loved people love people. People who are caught up--enraptured, enclosed, transported... ravished--by love literally can't do anything else but share that love. Because its too big to keep to ourselves. Too good to not share with any and everybody that comes into our path. Did you ever think about that term "witness"? A witness can only share his experience. He can only tell what he saw, or heard. Or, in this case, felt. Someone who can only tell you what the book says isn't nearly as powerful as someone who can share what they have with you. And I'm not trying to go against "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Because faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. But that Word is more than just the Bible. That Word is Jesus. That Word is love. When we heart that Word--or see it in action, which is charity--that's when we experience the everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life of God. His gift to us. A life of love. Being loved, and loving each other with that same love. That's WHY He ravishes us with His love... so that we can ravish each other. He loves the hell out of us... so that we can love the hell out of each other. Receiving and releasing. Receving BY releasing. Being ravished... so that we can ravish. Being so caught up in God's love that there is nothing else. That's what happened on the cross--the Messianic rebirth of the world; Jesus, the consuming fire of love, consumed everything except Himself. Like the burning bush that burned but wasn't consumed. Love feeds on love. Jesus, on the cross, remade the world in His image. As He is, so are we in this world. And all that other stuff is just that--stuff. Noise. Its not real. It has no power. God is all-powerful. LOVE is all-powerful. And that doesn't mean MOST powerful. It means love has--love IS--all of the power. Nothing else really matters. I've always said there are only two important things in this universe: God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. Because He first loved us. Guys, God literally said, "I would rather die than be without you." He wanted us to experience His life of love so much that He gave His life for us, and He gave His life to us. He gave us everything He had and everything He is. Now watch this: "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" (1 John 4:11). To me, that's the whole point of the whole thing. God is love, and He loves you. So let Him love you, and love everybody else with that love. Let that love--that we've already been filled with--fill us to overflowing. And in so doing experience the fulness of that love. And since love is giving... we experience it when we give it away. When we share it. When we knock someone's socks off by loving them bigger and better than they could ever ask or even think. We live by loving. We love by giving. Giving what we've got. Letting God ravish us at all times with His love... and ravishing each other with that love!

If you let it, God's love will ravish you. With even one glimpse into the grace in His eyes He will enclose you. Transport you. Carry you away to, well, let me say it like this: From hell to heaven. From death to life. But, like a seed, we need to make sure God's love is planted in good soil. And we need to make sure it is nurtured. So it can grow. So let me get to my memory verse for today: "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lighty" (Matthew 11:28-30 MSG). There's a lot there, so let's spend some time unpacking it. First I want to hit the "tired, worn out, burned out on religion" aspect. And I think that's so important because it seems to me like so many religious folk--even as they try to shove "Jesus" down people's throats--are pro-god, but antichrist. They want you to fit into their box, and if you do, maybe... just maybe... they'll love you. But love is not a prize to be won. WE are the prize that Jesus won BECAUSE He loves us! He gave everything He had and everything He was (and is) for us, and to us. He jumped through the hoop. He sacrificed Himself on the cross. He doesn't place demands on us. Nothing heavy or ill-fitting. Because He wants us to LIVE. To ENJOY the gift of life that we've been given. He wants us to FLOW. To REST. But rest isn't something you can just turn on and off like a light switch. Rest is something you learn how to do. And the first step in that is seeing that the work is finished. Seeing how the work GOT finished (on the cross), so you can stop trying to finish it. Walking with your Beloved and working with Him--as He walks and works in you and through you and as you. We have to LEARN the unforced rhythms of grace. Or, rather, UNLEARN the work-reward system that makes so much sense to the carnal mind. "If I do good, I'll be rewarded." Well... maybe the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. Maybe the gift of God was given to us simply because God wanted us to have it. And if you have to earn something... its not a gift. Notice that our passage says work WITH Him. Walk WITH Him. Keep company with Him and watch how He does it. Learn how to love by learning how God loves you. That's what a disciple is: A student of love. An everlasting life-long student of love. Because the deeper into God's love you go... the deeper you find you can go. It never stops. Never ends. It is literally better and better and better unto that perfect day. Not doom and gloom. Not bad and getting worse. But upward and God-ward. Learning to love as we are learning how God loves us. That's the whole point of the whole thing. That's why we were created. That's how much God loves us. He's willing to teach us. And to let us learn at our own pace. To let us make mistakes, and then help us get back up. And then to hold us up so we don't go down in the first place. Filling us with His love so that we can fill ourselves to overflowing with it and let it come out naturally. Ravishing us so that we can ravish each other. And that, of course, is for tomorrow.

We saw yesterday--in Proverbs 5:19--that we are to be ravished always with love. And when I looked that word up in Strong's Hebrew Concordance I got a little bit of a surprise. Because it is number 7686 and it means, "to stray, to mistake, to transgress; by extension to reel, be enraptured." And I think that last part is the important part. Because God's love is no mistake. And it does not cause us to stray from the path. God's love IS the path! Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. The way to love, the truth about love, and the life of love! And can I just say this: I think if there's any case to be made about any sort of rapture... it HAS to be about being enraptured by love! Our inheritance is this earth. We have been made kings and priest to rule and reign on this earth. Its not about some sweet by and by pie in the sky. Its about here and now. Because its about life. Jesus came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. And, listen, I'm not saying there isn't an afterlife. I'm simply saying we oughta enjoy this life that we have first. We oughta let God love us to the point that we are reeling. Almost drunk on it, if I can say it that way. And I think Acts 2:15 backs me up on that, "For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day." Drunk yes. But not as y'all suppose. Ravished by love. Reeling by the goodness of His love. Enraptured by it. Completely wrapped up in it to the point where nothing else matters. Now let's add Song of Solomon 4:9 to the mix. "Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck." I'm going to get to the eye in a minute, but that phrase "thou hast ravished my heart" is number 3823 in Strong's Hebrew Concordance (sorry for all the definitions today, but I think its important), and it means, "to be enclosed." Or, "transport." So let me say it this way: "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night" (1 Thessalonians 5:2). Jesus has stolen our hearts. Transported us. Transformed us. CONFORMED us into His very own image. As He is, so are we in this world. And He did it, the King James Version says, "...with one of thine eyes..." The NLT puts it like this, "You have captured my heart, my treasure, my bride. You hold it hostage with one glance of your eyes, with a single jewel of your necklace." One glance of His eyes. (And, yes, I know it says "my bride." But the whole point of the Song of Solomon is that two become one. We are the bride, the church, but it goes both ways.) Now watch this: One glance is His eyes kidnaps our heart because there is grace in His eyes! That's where Noah found it. And that's where we find it. When we are face to face--looking in the mirror with an unveiled face--with our Beloved... that's when we see His love. And its not just FOR us, its IN us. Because HE is not just for us, HE is in us. He IS us. We are in Christ because Christ is in us. We are in love because love is in us. And it just takes one glimpse of that love to ravish us. To wrap us up and wisk us away. And I think that's were I'm going to pick this up tomorrow. With the idea of getting away from it all and focusing fully and completely on the one thing that matters above all else: LOVE!

There are a lot of interesting questions in the Bible. And some of them even get answered. Like Luke 3:10-11, "And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise." What should we do? Live out of your abundance. Give to those in need. Asked and answered. Or Matthew 18:21-22, "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." In other words, there is no limit to grace, or mercy, or forgiveness... or love. And that's actually what's on my heart for this Rant series: When should we stop loving people? And, of course, my short answer is: Never. Or, to say it another way, you should stop loving people when God stops loving you. Because that's the New Commandment, right? Love one another as Jesus loves you. So you're only expected to love as much as you are loved. But look at Proverbs 5:19, "Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe: let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love." So let me say it like this: There's a phrase I like that says, "Check yourself before you wreck yourself." I like it because its sound advice. It goes along with this one, "If you cross the line, you get what you get." I think a lot of times we act without thinking... or we think without acting. And both can be equally bad. Because more is lost by indecision than wrong decision... but at the same time you shouldn't do things just to do them. You should do things on purpose, by purpose, and for purpose. That's one of the most important things I'm trying to teach Logan--know why you're doing what you're doing. Do it for the right reason. And that's where it comes full circle. Because the best--possibly the only reason--to do something is because its in your heart to do it. "Love made me do it." Exactly. And if you're living Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life--by letting HIM live it in you, and through you, and as you--you're living a life of love. So the question, "When should we stop loving people?" isn't even a question. Because we are too busy filling ourselves to overflowing with the love that we've already been filled with to worry about what happens when it overflows out of us. And watch this: People EXPECT you to stop loving them. I think sometimes we're so afraid of actually getting what we want... of actually having that love that we so desperately desire... that when we get it, it overwhelms us and we push back against it. It seems to good to be true. We don't trust it. So we sabotage it. We push the limits. We see if love really IS unconditional. But I'm telling you right now, if you're letting God's love ravish you... you KNOW (and believe) that it IS unconditional. That is has nothing to do with your actions and everything to do with your identity. Not what you do, but who you are. And then you find out that what you do FLOWS from who you are. Loved people love people. That's why we love (Him, by loving each other) because He first loved us. God loves the hell out of us, and then we simply let what's inside come out. We let God ravish us ALWAYS, so that we can ALWAYS ravish each other. Always love each other!

When you let the mind of Christ (that's already in you) be in you--by using it--that's when the cares of the world don't seem to matter as much. Let me say it another way, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). And as far as "seeking" goes, I don't think Jesus meant for us to seek the Kingdom as if it was something we don't have. I think "seek" here means "explore." In other words, USE the gift you've been given. Don't rob yourself of what you've been given by trying to earn something that can't be earned. Look at Matthew 6:33 in the NLT, "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need." Again--the things we are trying to earn are the things that have been freely given. We must simply (SIMPLY, not necessarily easily) receive and release them. Receive them BY releasing them. EXPERIENCE them by releasing them! And, for the record, living righteously doesn't mean jumping through religious hoops to try to fit into society's idea of what a "good Christian" is supposed to be. Living righteously means living in love. Letting God love you and loving others with that same love. Obeying the New Commandment. Which, again, comes down to trust. If you trust that your heavenly Father has your best interests at heart, then you will do what He wants you to do. And, to make it REALLY simple, what He wants you to do... is love. What else would the God who is love want? Which is why it drives me nuts when people are like, "I need your acceptance and support." And religious folk are like, "Let me pray about it." Like... all of God's promises are yea and amen, right? What God wants you to do--all of the time--is love people. Support people. And that doesn't mean you have to enable people. You don't have to help people do stuff they shouldn't be doing. But you don't have to judge them either. You can love them anyway. If the mind of Christ only thinks one thought (I love you) and it emerges as only one Word (Jesus... love), then our path should be clear. But we so easily seem to get caught up in every little thing. We react to what is going around us (outside of us) instead of letting out what's IN us. Someone hurts us, probably because they are hurting, and we immediately want to either hurt back or run and hide. Fight or flight. It takes a lot to stand there and take it. To endure. But that's why love never fails; because He endures. He doesn't smack back. He turns the other cheek. He doesn't demand that people do what He wants. He lets people be who they are--even as He shows people who they REALLY are by loving the hell out of them. Change comes from the inside-out. It comes from understanding that there's something better inside. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart. So when we stop letting whatever else get into us... that's when we can let what's REALLY in us come out. That's when we can BE who we are, instead of trying to to be someone we're not. When its the mind of Christ over matter... if you don't mind, it doesn't matter. If your sights are set on the Kingdom of God (the Kingdom of Love) and you are experiencing that love by giving it away... then everything else just sorts itself out. And that's when--and how--you can rest in the love of God!

What you give power to is what has power in your life. Because love is all powerful. So any power anywhere else comes from you giving it away. Which is why I can't really understand why we make mountains out of molehills so often. Its like the old saying, "Don't tell God how big the storm is... tell the storm how big God is!" And while I DO believe its Biblical to cast our cares on Him (because He cares for us), I DON'T think that means going aroung whining and crying about everything. I think it simply means trusting that our heavenly Fathe has our backs. That He has our best interests at heart. And that's why, to me, obedience has always been a trust issue. If we trust someone, we'll do what they ask us to do. But here's the really kind of weird thing: The only thing--the New Commandment--that God wants us to do... is love each other as He loves us. Fill ourselves to overflowing with His love and let it out. And its almost like... you know the story of Naaman, right? Where Elisha told him to go wash in the river Jordan and be clean? But that seemed too easy for Naaman. He expected to have to jump through a bunch of hoops. He expected to have to earn his healing. "And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?" (2 Kings 5:13). Wash and be clean. Simple. But we prefer to complicate things. Or, Naaman said he wanted the man of God to come and perform a miracle on him. Its like we want to do too much, or nothing at all. And we reject the simplicity of the sweet spot. Of rest. Of flowing in the river of life. Not swimming against the current, but letting God take us where HE wants us to go. Letting God do what HE wants to do. And I'm telling you, what He wants to do... is love the hell out of us and then watch us love the hell out of each other. Because God IS love. What else COULD He want? He wanted something to love--something to express Himself to, and in, and through--so He created us. And He gave us dominion over the earth. He made us kings and priests to rule and reign on this earth. To rule and reign with love. Through love. For love. By love. That's what matters. It's not about "whoever dies with the most toys wins." Its about living forever. And if you love people... even if you're mortal body dies... you live on through them. The lessons you teach. The impact you make. And I'm telling you--as a minister with a small ministry--you ARE making an impact on people. Whenever someone asks me for help and they know I'll help them... that's what I mean by knowing and believing that your heavenly Father has your back. Being there for people. Giving them your time. Giving them everything you have and everything you are. Showing them that love matters by showing them that THEY matter. That's how we let the mind of Christ (that's already in us) BE in us. We USE it. We think the thoughts of God towards each other. And God only has one Word. He only has one thought. "I love you, I love you, I love you, I can't stop loving you!" Like Logan and I always say, "Can't stop won't stop!" Because instead of giving powerless things power, we can USE our power. We can let what's inside come out. Then its not what's gotten into us, but what's getting out of us!

Love is all powerful. Which doesn't mean MOST powerful, but means, has ALL the power. There is NO other power. When God arises, His enemies are scattered. When the light shines, the darkness flees. Now watch this: "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled" (Colossians 1:21). Did you catch that? We were God's enemies... in our minds. We THOUGHT we were His enemies. When really He had sworn to never leave us nor forsake us. So we were never REALLY His enemies at all. And when He arose, when He gave us the mind of Christ, when He reconciled us back to Himself, that's when that guilty conscience mindset scattered. That old man, selfish, beast nature that died on the cross--and, individually, in the watery grave of baptism. And when we received that second death--people always say, "Jesus died so I could live," but really Jesus died so we could DIE. And then He rose again so we could live in Him, as He lives in us--when we received that second death we also received that abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life. On the cross Jesus remade the world in His image. The Messianic rebirth of the world. The consuming fire that is love consumed everything except itself--Himself. Which is to say only love remains. Which is to say... all this stuff we get so wrapped up in doesn't need our time of day. We don't need to let things get into us. We don't need to give power to things that don't have any power. We don't have to believe the lie... because we know the truth. And the truth has set us free and made us free. The ultimate truth of the universe that says, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand" (John 3:35). The truth that God is love and He loves you. That's our foundation stone that we build everything else on top of. That's the Rock that we stand on so that WHEN the storm comes... we will not be shaken. I always say it like this: If God is holding you up--and He is--nothing can bring you down. And even if you do lose sight of what's really important, like Peter when he was walking on water and then started to drown, Jesus is always right there to save you. LOVE is always right there to save you. But I think the point I'm trying to make is: We don't need to let ourselves get to that point. We can save ourselves a lot of trouble, and effort, and heartache, by starting at the start. Using prayer as first choice and not last chance. By comitting our ways to the Lord and letting HIM do what He wants to do with it. Letting love lead the way. Following our hearts. Trusting our guts. Knowing and believing that we are loved, and loving each other with that love. I'm telling you, if you don't mind... it don't matter. So set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Stop getting caught up with what's going on outside of you and start focusing on what's INSIDE you. The LOVE inside you. And then let that love out. USE the mind of Christ that you've been given. Think love first, last, and always. Look for opportunites to love instead of things to complain about. Look for people to love instead of always trying to protect yourself. Don't close your heart down. Keep it open. Because love is what matters!

If you don't mind... it don't matter. That's what's been on my heart recently. The whole idea of how we let ourselves get wrecked so often by the smallest things. Perceived slights. We think someone is being rude to us, when the truth is they probably aren't thinking about us at all. See, I'm convinced that people are more for themselves than they are against us. Which is why my advice is, "Don't take it personally, even if it is." Because even if it is personal, there's probably nothing you can do about it. So where's the sense in getting all fired up about it? Why not just turn the other cheek, shrug your shoulders, and carry on? Let's try it like this: In Matthew chapter 14 there's a story about Jesus walking on water. And the revelation I had there is that I don't think Jesus particularly cared that there was water or what between Him and His disciples. He wanted to get to them, and He wasn't worried about how He was going to do it. So He just walked on out to them. Then He called Peter to join Him--well, actually Peter ASKED to join Him, and that was a-ok with Jesus. So Peter stepped out. And I think Peter, rather than necessarily standing on the water, was standing on the word of the Lord. But then Peter got distracted. His circumstances got the better of him. He stopped looking at Jesus--the author and finisher of our faith--and he started to get scared. He started to see how "impossible" it was for him to be doing what he was doing. He started to see the waves churning beneath his feet. And then, in the Message Bible, we see this in Matthew 14:31, "Jesus didn't hesitate. He reached down and grabbed his hand. Then he said, "Faint-heart, what got into you?"" Now think about that. We seem to have come to the conclusion that God will punish us for just about any and every thing. But here Peter "lost his faith." The KJV even reports Jesus as saying, "...O thou of little faith..." But either way, when Peter started to sink, Jesus reached out and grabbed him. He didn't punish anybody. He saved them that needed saving. And then He asked the important question: What got into you? Because its not what we get into that matters as much as what gets into us. What we LET inside us. The things that we LET bother us. And guys, let me just say this: When you know the truth you can ignore the lie. You don't have to let anybody else's opinion bother you. Especially when you consider that most of the time people don't know the whole story anyway. So why do you care so much what they say or think? Why do you let things get into you? Its mind over matter. The mind of Christ over the matters of the world. Knowing and believing what's already inside you is what keeps things from getting into you. Knowing and believing that you are loved with an unconditional love is what keeps you afloat. And, like I always say, if Jesus is holding you up--and He is--then nothing can drag you down. It doesn't matter what people say. It matters what your heavenly Father says. And what HE says is, "You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." What HE says is, "I love you, I love you, I love you," with every beat of His heart in your chest. That's what's already in you. You don't need to let anything else in. You simply need to let what's in there come out!

The phrase that's stuck in my head... and when that happens sometimes I figure I oughta write about it... is, "If you don't mind, it don't matter." And what I'm going to try to say for the next few days is just that: You don't have to let everything that happens on the outside affect what is happening on the inside. Another way to say that is: The fire in you is always hotter than the fire you're in. Another way is Colossians 3:1-2, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." I like to quote that second verse a lot, because I think we would do well to SET our affection. To be a thermostat instead of a thermometer. To SET the temperature instead of merely taking it. To be the change we want to see, instead of just complaining about how we don't see it. Letting what's inside us come out instead of letting what's around us rule over us. And I know that can be hard sometimes. Because for the most part we're a pretty emotional species. Something happens and its fight or flight. But one of the Seven Habits of Leadship (from my son's elementary school) is Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood. Sometimes (most of the time, possibly all of the time) is we would just take a minute to understand what's going on--to maybe dig a little deeper and try to see WHY someone is doing what they're doing, instead of just jumping on them for what they're doing--then I think things might could go a lot more smoothly. Because behavior is communication. People just want to be heard. And sometimes if they feel like nobody's listening... well... kicking and screaming starts to sound like a viable option. And, unfortunately, so many times when that happens we (again) go straight into fight or flight. We get hit so we hit back. Or we get hit so we run and hide in order to make sure we don't get hit again. You know I'm going to pull out the turn the other cheek memory verse, right? So I won't even quote it, but you know what I'm talking about. Love never fails because love endures. Love doesn't demand His own way, and love doesn't run at the first sign of things getting hard. Love can take a punch, if I can put it that way. And I'm not saying you should stay in a situation where you're getting beat on. You know how I feel about putting, or keeping, yourself in a bad situation. But I'm saying, sometimes when someone lashes out, they need someone who will still be there for them no matter what. That's probably what they need more than anything else. And if you can get past that initial explosion... and get to the root of what's really going on... maybe there won't be anymore explosions. You don't have to let someone else's bad day ruin your day. And I say this as someone who has a LOT of empathy. I can always see both sides of the story. I can understand why people feel the way they do--whether its "right" or not. The key is be that peacemaker. To have a word (or Word, capital W, LOVE) in season. To let what's inside come out and affect what's going on outside. Mind (of Christ) over matter. Not reacting to what's happening in a negative sense, but seeing the need and meeting it with love!