Extra Mile part 2
Here's the point I think I'm trying to make (in my wander around talking about love kind of way): You can go the extra mile simply by being yourself. You don't have to over-extend, or over-reach. You have everything you need already. It's inside you. Bursting at the seams. Champing at the bit. Just waiting for you to fill yourself with the fulness of what you've been filled with. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. If you operate on an "eye for an eye" level we'll all end up blind. But remember what we saw in the Message Bible yesterday? Matthew 5:42, "And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously." If someone gives you what THEY have... hurt... you don't have to give hurt back. You can put an end to the cycle. You can use them hurting you--which is really a cry for help--as an opportunity to give what YOU'VE got. And that's what it means to go the extra mile. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously. Live out of the abundance of your heart. Don't take what they've got and give it back to them. Give what YOU'VE got because it's what they really need! It's what WE ALL really need! All we need is love. So if someone gives anything other than love... it's because that's what they believe they have. Which means they DON'T believe they have love. You can't love unless you know and believe you ARE loved. We love, because He first loved us. We receive it, then we release it. We fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've been filled with. We apprehend what we've been apprehanded of. We let ourselves BE loved by our heavenly Father, and then we love each other with that same love. We lay our lives down for our friends. But, again, that doesn't mean we kill ourselves trying to do too much. I think the most frustrating thing you can do is bang your head against the wall trying to be someone you're not. I'm telling you... all you'll get is a headache. This life--this LOVE--isn't supposed to be a struggle. It's supposed to be a flow. The issues of life FLOW from the heart. Our heart is our compass. When we follow it, I have to believe things will turn out how they're supposed to. When we rest we learn how to truly live. Not running around like chickens with our heads cut off, but simply letting what's already inside come out. Naturally. And when you understand this new nature--this TRUE nature--of love... that's when things get really simple. That's when you go the extra mile for somebody without even thinking about it. You see a need and you meet it (out of your abundance) no questions asked. You stop judging by appearance and you judge righteous judgment. You know what you've got, so it doesn't matter what someone else tries to give you. You can love without expectation. You can love, not in order to get something, but because you've got something!