Helping part 5
When you help people they WILL take advantage of you. Do it anyway. They won't appreciate it. Don't worry about it. Its better to be naive than cynical. Better to keep your heart open than to close it down. Harder, sometimes, certainly, but better. Love is the more excellent way Paul was writing about in 1 Corinthians 12 and 13. And love does what it does without any expectation. Remember my personal definition of love? Glady (not grudgingly) giving everything you have and everything you are EVEN THOUGH it seems like the more you love, the less you are loved. That "even though" is important. Because it illustrates that love is about what you give, not what you get. Love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. And the only thing that will ever truly help someone... is love. That's what people need. That's the most important thing there is. Either way, Christ's love controls us, right? Because either we don't know that we are loved and we do everything we do in order to get it--the man-centered, performance-based trap of relgious works and labor--or we know and believe the love of Christ and we do everything we do in order to share what we've got. Living out of abundance. Sharing the gift we've been given. That's what this life is all about. That's what this life is for. And like I've been trying to say: The best way to feel love is to love others. The best way to help yourself is to help others. Not being self-centered, but being Christ-centered. Which means being people-centered. Putting others first. Esteeming others higher than yourself. Giving instead of trying to get. Receiving and releasing--receiving BY releasing--the love of God. Filling yourself to overflowing with what God has already filled you with. And we fill ourselves with that love by using it. By giving it away. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So by walking in faith--stepping out in love, letting the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) become flesh in OUR flesh--we are PROVING our faith. Our faith in God. Our faith in love. By loving people we are proving, to ourselves, that we believe that we are loved. If we didn't have it we couldn't give it away. So giving it away is really the only way to experience it. We are blessed to be a blessing, right? We bear one another's burdens because we are strong enough to help people carry them. We go through things so that we can learn and grow. So that we can help others as they go through the same stuff we've been through. I'm telling you, its pretty powerful when you can look someone in the eye and say, "I've been right where you're out. I know you can get through this. Because I got through it. And I'm here to help you get through it." And when you go through something with someone... that kind of bond is hard to break. That's the kind of connection that lasts. That's when you can really help people. Not when you condemn them. Most of the time when we screw up, we know it. We don't need someone to pile on, or kick us when we're down. We need someone to reach down and help us up. And if you've been where they are, you can understand. You can lend that helping hand. You can be for them the person you needed. And, again, that is so powerful. So help people. See a need and fill it. Don't worry about what comes next. Just do what you can do. Give what you've got. Let what's inside come out. Live fully. Love fearlessly!