All About Love part 3
Love is what it's all about. It's what we crave. What we want. What we NEED. Love is the desire of our heart. And it's only by delighting ourselves in the Lord--who IS love--that we "get" it. Or, more accurately, RECEIVE it. Because we already have it. We ARE loved. What else could the God who is love do than love us? He would have to deny His own nature to do something else. But here's what I have for today: I started this Rant series talking about acceptance, and understanding, and love. Which, really are all the same thing. You can't love someone you don't accept. And you can't accept someone you don't understand. Which, to me, is the difference between acceptance and tolerance. We can tolerate just about anything, if we have a reason to. We humans are a resilent bunch. We can get used to the worst kind of stuff. And we call that acceptance, but to me it's really not. It's more giving up than accepting. To me, accepting something (or someone) is the same as celebrating it. Enjoying it. Loving it. But like I said, you can't accept something you don't understand. You can't accept SOMEONE you don't understand. And that's why when we judge someone it reveals nothing about THEM but everything about US. When we judge someone, or worse yet condemn them, we aren't trying to understand them. We're trying to change them. And I think that's the biggest misconception there is about love. Love doesn't want to change you. Love doesn't need to. I can't tell you how many times I've heard the phrase, "God loves you just the way you are, but He loves you too much to leave you that way." And every time I hear it I have to grind my teeth together to keep from screaming, "THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!!!" Because EITHER God loves you the way you are, OR He needs to change you. Guys, whatever change was needed happened 2,000 years ago on the cross. And that change that took place was not God turning you into something He could love. He already loved you. The change that took place was the Holy Spirit--the love receptor--taking up abode inside you so that you could RECEIVE His love. So that you could understand it, and accept it. So that you could know and believe that you are loved, and then love others with that same love. God doesn't need to change you. He needs to show you the change that took place on the cross. We don't need a move of God. God already moved. We need a revelation of Jesus. We need to know what the move of God was, and what it means. And what it was, was Jesus giving His life both for us and to us. And what it means is that we can enjoy the gift of God--eternal life--that we've already been given. We can love, because we ARE loved. We can accept one another, because we can finally understand one another. We can stop looking AT each other--surface stuff, actions--and we can look INTO each other and see the hidden man of the heart. The Jesus in me can connect to the Jesus in you. And that bond of love can bring us together. We can celebrate each other. ACCEPT each other. Understand each other. And love each other...!