Bridges part 2
I don't know why this is, but is seems like it's so much easier to break things than it is to build them. And I think maybe it's because there are so MANY ways to break things, but really only one way to build them. Remember yesterday we were looking at the negative things that we use to try to bind people to us. Guilt, and whatnot. But that's not relationship, that's bondage. In the same way, we seem to let the smallest things separate us. We make mountains out of molehills and let the smallest slight tear us apart. We assume that if someone does something to us (or doesn't do something for us) it's because they have some sort of personal agenda against us. But it's my experience that most of the time we're just too busy thinking about ourselves to even think about each other for good or ill. And that, my friends, is where love comes in. The bridge that connects us. Because love is what it's all about. It's what everybody wants. What everybody needs. It's the only true connection there is. Hebrews 13:1 says, "Let brotherly love continue." In the Message Bible it reads, "Stay on good terms with each other, held together by love." Love is what brings us together, and what holds us together. Love is the foundation that everything else must be built on. Love is the deep calling out to the deep. Love is Spirt to Spirit, holy to holy. Love is the true me and the true you lining up with each other because we are lining up with Jesus--who IS love. God in the flesh, love in a body. And when we know that love is IN our body, that's when it starts to come OUT. When we fill ourselves to overflowing with God's love it comes out naturally and gets all over everybody we come into contact with. The problem is when we look for love in all the wrong places. When we try to get love from someone else. Because love is never about getting. It is always about giving what we already have. Receiving and releasing. Because love IS giving. Giving your life--yourself--to your neighbor, or your friend, or your family. Laying your life down. Lifting someone else up. When we're too preoccupied with ourselves (self-centered) that's when we miss out on being focused on others (Christ-centered). Let me say it like this: There seems to be a great mystery about the mind of Christ. And about how even though it's already in us, we still need to let it BE in us. How do we do that? Look at Philippians 2:4-5, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." We let the mind of Christ (that's already in us) BE in us... by looking out for others. And here's the best part: When I look out for you, and you look out for me, neither one of us has to worry about ourselves! Because we're covered. And watch this: Me taking care of myself can be construed as selfish (I'm not saying it is, I'm saying it can look that way or feel that way sometimes). But if I look out for you--even if I go over the top with it--that's called being generous. That's called loving you. And that's the only debt we owe each other. That's the only commandment for the New Man. The New Commandment. Love one another as Jesus loves you. Don't worry about yourself. Daddy's got you covered. He fills you up and all you have to do is share what you've got. You don't have to change people, or make them agree with you. All you have to do is love them. Knock down the walls, and build some bridges. Don't push people away, but offer them a safe place to be!