Embrace part 4
When you give someone something unexpected, it can turn their whole world around. Especially when, instead of an eye for an eye, you give them a loving embrace. Especially when you show them a more excellent way. I think people--unfortunately--are used to getting a bad deal. We always ask, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" but I think deep down we expect bad things to happen. We complain about it, but we're used to it. We accept it. It's par for the course. Normal. So when something good actually DOES happen... it's usually kind of shocking. Remember Jacob and Esau? When big brother (who was wronged over and over again) embraced little brother they both wept. It was a release. For Jacob it was being able to release all the feelings of guilt and shame. For Esau it was a release of any bitterness or resentment. There was something between the brothers. And it took one of them letting go of it and embracing the other for that reconciliation. Love doesn't break things apart. Love binds things together. I've Ranted before on the ties that bind. And there are a lot of them. Guilt... obligation... "you owe me." A lot of negative ties. But there are a lot of positive ones too. Mercy, and grace, and forgiveness... and love. And THOSE ties are unbreakable. In fact, the positive ones can break the negative ones. Nahum 1:13 speaks of this idea. "For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder." (And yes, I understand the historical context is about the Assyrian oppression. But the Spiritual application is about the bondage of sin and death.) See... we don't win by fighting against flesh and blood. We win by fighting the good fight of faith. Laying hold of the gift of eternal life that we've been given. Sin is unbelief, and can only be defeated by faith. And we lay hold of eternal life... by embracing it. By letting God love us. By receiving it and releasing it. And we receive it BY releasing it. We letting God love us by loving each other. We embrace eternal life... by embracing each other. By letting what we've been filled with fill us to overflowing and come out naturally. We don't have to fake it 'til we make it. All we have to do is let what's true be true for us. And that happens when we know it and believe it. When we BE transformed (into what we've already been transformed into) by the renewing of our minds. By letting the mind of Christ (that's already in us) BE in us. We don't have to change. We simply have to see the change that already took place. We don't have to transform. God's love already transformed us. The Old Man died in the watery grave of baptism. The New Man came forth to walk in newness of life. We CAN embrace, because we have BEEN embraced. We CAN love, because we ARE loved. Because we are LOVE. That's what's inside. The Kingdom is within you. The Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of Love. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. When we know what we've got, we can give it away. We can share it. We can experience it. We can stop letting stuff get between us and our fellow man. We can let people be who they are even as we be who we are. We can stop rejecting people and start embracing them!