Edification part 5
Things get broken. That's called life. And sometimes its nothing cataclysmic at all. Sometimes its just general wear and tear. I've long held the opinion that the hardest part of life is living. Sometimes its all we can do to just show up. But its important to realize that showing up is way more than half the battle. Its MOST of the battle. Because life is a participation activity. The only way to fail is by failing to try. Which means, if life knocks you down... get back up. Proverbs 24:16 says, "For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again..." And here's where it ties into the idea of edification, and where it ties up this entire Rant series; If we stop telling people what's wrong with them and start telling people what's right with them... they will KNOW they are just and they will BE ABLE to get back up! If we train up a child in the way he SHOULD go... not by always telling him what NOT to do--because rules create rulebreakers. Strict parents create sneaky kids--but telling him what TO do, then when he is old he will not depart from it. I'm telling you, sometimes we make the good stuff too hard. Or we make it seem like its too good to be true. And I understand positive reinforcement. But I also like to do special things for my kid just because he's my kid. Just because I love him. Because that's what love IS. Its giving everything you have and everything you are. And everything you have and everything you are... is good. Remember when we looked at man being created in God's image? Well, look at what happened after He created us: "And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good..." After each thing God created He found it good. Then after He created us... VERY good. My point being, you're special. And rather than beating what's special out of people in order to get them to fit into a box... we need to celebrate what's special. We need to nourish those things so that they will grow. We need to build each other up. And not in our own images either. My son, Logan, is a big time mini-me. People even say we look alike. And I love that. He is me. I love it that we have so many things in common. BUT, at the same time, I don't FORCE that either. He likes things I like... and he likes things that I'm not crazy about. And that's ok. I let him be who he is. Because where the Spirit of the Lord is... there is LIBERTY. FREEDOM. Freedom FROM sin and death... and freedom TO live and love. Building someone up means letting them be who we are. But helping them to be strong also. So when the inevitable breaking, or wearing out, or falling down DOES happen... we will know that the fire in us is always hotter than the fire we're in. We'll know that we're not alone. We have people who love us. And support us. We'll know that no matter how many times life knocks us down... we CAN get back up. Because we're strong. Built on a strong foundation. A rock-hard foundation that is Jesus. That is love. Love never fails, right? Which means when we live by faith--faith in God... faith in love--we can never fail. It may not always look like we think it should, and it may take more time than we would like it to... but things work out in the end. If it hasn't worked out yet, its not the end yet!