It's About part 4
It's about love. Pure and simple. So that means it's about people. People other than yourself. You can't love people while you're also trying to get things from them. Because love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. For God so loved the world He GAVE. I always say it like this: You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. If you're trying to get... that's literally the opposite of love. If you're trying to get... then you don't know what you've got. Knowing and believing the love of God is so vitally important to this life. Because living and loving aren't just connected. They are the same thing. To live is to love and to love is to live. So when we're going about our lives, trying to figure out what it's about... It's about love. Receiving and releasing the love of God. We love Him (by loving each other) because He first loved us. You can't give what you don't have and you can only give what you do have. So you have to KNOW what you do have. That's the receiving part. Not trying to GET love, but knowing that we HAVE love. Knowing that we ARE loved. And because of that... we are LOVE. Love isn't just what we do. Love is who we are. God is love. He created us in order to express Himself to us, and in us, and through us, and as us. We are the visible face of the invisible God. We are His expression of love. He filled us up with love--with Himself--and we fill ourselves to overflowing with that love and watch it come out. Naturally. You don't have to force it. You don't have to fake it 'til you make it. But let me say this: Being nice to someone you don't like isn't being fake. It's being mature. It's being who YOU are no matter what, or who, you come into contact with. Letting what's inside come out. That's what it's about--being who you are. Who you REALLY are. Which is who you are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in you. Letting Jesus live His own abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love in you, and through you, and as you. Letting the love of God fill you up and come out. So you get the benefits of being filled up, and you get to give the benefits of letting it out. Receiving and releasing. Breathing in and breathing out. Breathing LOVE in and out. Letting God love the hell out of us and loving Him back by loving each other with every beat of HIS heart in our chests. So stop trying so hard. Stop trying to be someone you're not in order to get something you think you haven't got. You have what you need. You are who you're supposed to be. Relax. Rest. Let the love that's already inside you come out--by knowing and believing that it's in there. Faith comes from hearing, right? And hearing from the Word (Jesus, love) of God. Let that Word resonate with you. Soak it in, man. The love of God is all we need. And it's what we have. Our part is just using it, if I can say it that way. Experiencing and enjoying the gift we've been given by sharing it. By giving it away. By loving people. Love is what makes life worth living. Love is what it's all about!