People part 4
You know the old saying, "You always want what you can't have"? I think that's because the thing we want-- the true and deep desire of our heart-- is to be loved. And, unfortunately, we don't think we deserve to be loved. We think love can be, MUST BE, earned. When, in truth, love is freely given. It can only be received. So we spend all of our time, talent, and treasure looking for love in all the wrong places. We get caught up in anything and everything else and we miss out on the thing we want most. Once, when I was a small boy, I heard a preacher say, "God is in the people business." And for a long time I didn't really understand what he meant. But I kept that phrase in my heart, because it resonated with me, even then. I mean, think about it: The Word became flesh. God, who is a Spirit, became man. That's how interested He is in man. David writes, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:4). And what that says to me is that God's mind is full of man. Deuteronomy 32:10 says, "He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye." Think about that. Man is the apple of God's eye. God's mind is full of man. Guys, He's not mad AT us, He's mad ABOUT us! He's abolutely head over heels in love with us. And not because of what we've done, or what we're going to do either. Love isn't conditional. It's not dependent on actions. Again: We can't earn it. Love is not about what we do. Love is about who we are. We are people. And we were created in the image and likeness of God Himself. He is the Father and we are the Son(s) of God! He loves us because of who we are, and because of who He is. Period. And since God IS love, He would have to deny Himself to do anything but love us. He'd have to stop being God to stop loving us. He created this entire world for us. And, again, I'm not getting into any issues. That's my point these last couple of days. I don't want to argue and fight about things. I don't want to be proven right if that means proving you wrong. I have another old saying for you, "Can't we all just get along?". For real though. We don't have to agree on everything in order to love each other. In order to protect each other and take care of each other. Differences are what makes people interesting. Variety is the spice of life, right? How boring would it be if everybody was exactly the same and agreed on everything? But what we do is we let those differences act as walls between us. We let those differences drive wedges between us. We forget that at the bottom of every issues is a real life person. And if it's an issue, it's probably because people on both sides are hurting. So instead of trying to crush our enemies, why don't we get rid of our enemies by making them our friends? Why don't we just love people regardless instead of setting up hoops for them to jump through? Why don't we get to the REAL issue, which is the issue of life, which flows from the heart. And the reason life flows from the heart is because to live is to love and to love is to live! Loving PEOPLE is the difference between life and death. And that's why God gave us His Spirit. So we might know and believe we are loved, and love each other with that same love. We don't have to try to get something that we think we don't have, or don't deserve. We can simply start to share what we've got!