Flexible part 5
Love is only inflexible in the point of it (HIM) never stopping. Otherwise, love will bend over backwards for literally anybody. When Jesus was lifted up on the cross He drew ALL men into Himself. He died for the WORLD. And His commandment was for US to love EACH OTHER in that same way. To let God love us, and to love each other with that same love. The New Commandment for the New Man. The FLEXIBLE New Man. The One who gives everything He has and everything He is to His fellow man. The One who lays down His life for His friends. (Capitalization on the "He" because the New Man is Jesus. We are Him because He is in us. There is no separation between God and man, because God lives IN man.) So all we really have to do is let God love us until we are filled to overflowing with what He has already filled us with: His love. And I think that's an appropriate place to end this Rant series. Because sometimes we are too rigid in what we think God is willing to love. That's called religion. Trying to fit into a box so that we can "earn" God's love. When, in fact, God's love is a gift. Freely given. Can't be earned. But must be received in order to be experienced. Must be released in order to be experienced. Knowing and believing God loves us--having faith in God (love)--is what equips and empowers us to love. And His love FOR us is unconditional. So, logically, if we are to love as we are loved, our love for each other must be unconditional. We have to be flexible enough to love each other no matter what... and we have to be flexible enough to believe that God loves US no matter what. I know that can be hard, because, for instance, I know ALL of the worst things that I've ever done. Because I was there when they happened. I was literally, physically doing them. And when I think about that stuff, I can very easily convince myself that I am hard to love. I can get sucked into the trap of "good vs evil" and I can pile up all my evil on one scale, and all of my good on the other, and I can talk myself out of what I've already been given. I can convince myself that I'm not worthy of love. And isn't it funny that the bad things we do always seem bigger than the good things we do? We can make ONE mistake, and it can haunt us. When, in truth, love doesn't keep a list of right and wrongs at all. God has already forgiven and forgotten all of your sins and trespasses. That happened when the Lamb of God took away the sin of the world. That happened when Jesus prayed to His Father to forgive us because we didn't know what we were doing. (Yes, I believe He was praying for those physically crucifying Him. But also for all of us who didn't know the glorious truth of His love, and were trying to earn it instead of recieving it.) I think the way to life is straight and narrow. But it can also be a long and winding road. A road with twists and turns along the way. Sometimes things don't go the way we think they should, and we need to be able to roll with the punches. Because God has our best interests at heart. What's that song? Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. Sometimes what we think we want is not really what's best for us. And sometimes the hardest thing we can do is simply believe that we are worthy of God's love. But the truth is: We were CREATED BY LOVE TO BE LOVED. That's our purpose. That's what life is. And life can be messy, so we need to be flexible!