Nature part 1
I keep telling you guys (repeating myself over and over) that I repeat myself. Because there are some things that are heavy on my heart that I feel are very important. That I feel I have at least a bit of a handle on. (Having said that, I don't write because I have it all figured out. I write to figure it out.) But tonight I want to take an idea that I Rant about often--the nature of love, and how love is our true nature--and kind of take it in a little bit of a different direction. I want to talk about WHY things come natural to us. I want to talk about WHY we do the things we do. Kind of a, "What's my motivation?" deal. And, bottom line, we SHOULD do things because they are in our hearts to do them. Love should be our one and only motivation. Now, having said that kind of broad, sweeping statement, let's dive into it. And let's start with 2 Corinthians 9:8, "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." That's it in a nutshell. Because God has filled--and continues to fill--us up with grace... we can stop chasing and start sharing what we've got. We ALWAYS have sufficiency in ALL things. And because of that, we may abound to every good work. It's such a shift in thinking when we know--with a experiencial heart knowledge that passes head knowledge--that we have no lack because our God has no lack. When we understand the ultimate truth of the universe: God is love and He loves you. "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand" (John 3:35). We don't need to GET anything, because we already HAVE everything. When the shift from needing and trying to get... changes to having and trying to give... that's when everything falls into place. That's when we can stop trying and start flowing. One more memory verse for today, John 7:38 (MSG), "Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says." When you know what you've got inside... it comes out. Naturally. It has to. It's too big not to. So what I'm trying to say, in my normal roundabout hope my point comes together way, is that it's not about trying. If you're trying to do something, it obviously isn't coming natural to you. And while I'm not saying you should never try, in the context of "if at first you don't succeed, try try again," I AM saying that you SHOULDN'T try to be someone you're not. That's impossible. Trying to do something you've never done, and learning from your mistakes and failures, is part of the process of learning and growing. That's all good. That's proper. But going against your "new" (TRUE) nature is different. Ignoring that still, small voice inside you and listening to the lie of the world is what gets us into trouble so many times. So what we need to do, and this is thrust of this Rant series, is we need to get comfortable with grace. We need to need to get comfortable with not chasing things. With the truth that we have what we need and we are who we're supposed to be. We need to stop hating ourselves (and each other) and start embracing ourselves (and each other)!