Connection part 5
It's about unity. Sharing this world that we inhabit. It's NOT about building walls of separation. It's about building bridges of connection. Coming together. Because we are better together. It's not good that man should be alone. It's not good that we isolate ourselves, or each other. Jesus--the New Man of which we are all different parts of His one body--is altogher lovely. Which means WE are lovely all together. There are some things that I can do. And there are some things that I can't do. And that's true for you, too. So when we work together we fill in each other's gaps. Alone, we feel that sense of lack. Together, we are whole. Complete. Connected. And while the surface stuff can try to dictate similarities and differences, and while its easy to let these similiarities and differences define our relationships... there's something deep inside that is much more powerful. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart. The deep calling out to the deep. The Jesus (love) in me connecting to the Jesus (love) in you. And that's how we truly live. To live is to love and to love is to live. We experience life--Jesus's everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life--when we love each other. When we refuse to let the surface stuff dictate to us. When we live inside-out instead of outside-in. And really, we always do that anyway. What's inside comes out. Or, more accurately, what we BELIEVE is inside comes out. Your beliefs dictate your actions. That's why it's so important that our first connection is to God. We're not trying to get anything from anybody. We're simply sharing what we've got with everybody! First John 4:19 tells us, "We love him, because he first loved us." And in the New Living Translation it says, "We love each other because he loved us first." Did you catch that? We love Him BY loving each other! BECAUSE He first loved us! We receive and release His love. It comes from Him, and it goes one to another, and in that way it returns to Him! He is the vine. He produces the fruit (of the Spirit, which is love). We are the branches. Connected to Him. Bearing that fruit. Carrying it to those who need it. (Which, by the way, is everybody. Everybody needs what we've got, so we don't need to get stuck trying to judge, and discern, and condemn. We don't need to decide who to share it with. It's an everlasting supply. We can give it to everybody we come into contact with. Without even thinking about it. Naturally. Because loving each other is our nature!) Unity. Working together. Because we're in this together. Everybody is just trying to do the best they can with what they've got. The problem so many times is that people don't know what they've got. They don't know who they are. And they don't know who God is. They run FROM Him because they think they're sinners, and they think He's mad at them. It's our job to show people that God is not mad AT them, but mad ABOUT them! And we do that... by loving people. Because love casts out fear. Love knocks down walls. Love is the glue that holds us together. It is the consuming fire that burns away everything except itself. Purifying everything until only love is left. See? We start with love and end with love. It's all about love...!