Conventional Wisdom part 4
Love doesn't make sense a lot of the time. It seems foolish. But the truth of the matter is... the heart wants what it (HE) wants. You don't get to choose who you love. And, really, you shouldn't. Because it rains on the just and the unjust alike. God loves everybody. What else could the God who is love do but love? He doesn't turn it on and off. He is no respecter of persons. He doesn't care who you are or what you've done. He just loves you. He created you for the express purpose of loving you. And while He expresses Himself TO you BY loving you, He also express Himself THOUGH you when you love Him back by loving others. That kind of love--an unconditional love in which you give everything you have and everything you are without expecting anything in return--flies in the face of conventional wisdom though. It seems too good to be true. It seems like we should have to earn (or beg, borrow, and steal) everything we get. Especially love. Because the world does a pretty good job of convincing us that we aren't worthy of love. That all of our mistakes, our past, has disqualified us. And even traditional "religion" keeps us in that trap of trying to cleanse ourselves. Or prove ourselves. The problem is that no matter how close we get to the carrot, the stick always moves at the last second. There's always one thing we lack. Or, in our own opinions, lack is all we've got. That's the lie that we believe. That's sin. Believing that we're not worthy of being loved. Believing that we have to earn it. And that's the worst thing we can do, becauses it absolutely positively cannot be earned. You don't do in order to be. You do BECAUSE you be. Love is not about getting. Because love IS giving. Jesus took away the sin (unbelief) of the world by giving us something (someONE, Himself, LOVE) to believe in. He made life so simple. To live is to love and to love is to live. That's the secret of life. That's the simplicity of Christ. And notice, I didn't say "easy." I said "simple." Because even though love is our new (true, original) nature... we have a lot of baggage. We are finally beginning to understand (to know and believe) what is deep down inside, but there's a lot of surface stuff we're still dealing with. A lot of looking AT the mirror, and seeing our perceived flaws and blemishes, instead of looking INTO the mirror (the perfect law of liberty), and seeing our true selves. But what you see is what you be. So when you DO see that love inside... when you stop listening to conventional wisdom and stop looking for love in all the wrong places... that's when it can come out. What you believe is inside will always come out. So when you do see your true self (someone who is loved, someone who can love) that's when you can BE your true self. You can live care free. Which doesn't mean wasting what you've been given, but does mean being generous. Giving what you've got. Not because you're trying to get something, but because you have something. Something that people need. Something that SEEMS too good to be true, but is really so good that it must be true. Something that is the truth. And the way, and the life. It doesn't make sense to love people with reckless abandon. It can seem scary at first. But perfect love casts out fear. We don't need to hold back with our love. We can give it away, share it, and in that way experience it!