Preemptive Strike part 3
You guys know I don't like starting a Rant with a Bible verse. So I usually ramble a little bit before I just come out firing with it. Now that that's done, Revelation 22:13 says, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." And, really, that's all I'm trying to say in this Rant series. LOVE is Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, first and last. I've heard this quite a bit where people say, "Prayer oughta be first choice not last chance." And I agree. Absolutely. But I think we should take it a step further. I think LOVE ought to be first choice and not last chance. I think that's where we should start. That IS our foundation. 1 Corinthians 3:11 says, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." There's only one true foundation. Only one Rock that we can stand on and not be shaken. And that foundation isn't one that we need to lay. Its a foundation that has already been laid. It was laid 2,000 years ago on the cross. And, really, it was laid when the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. Love is Alpha... because love is the first thing that happened. It didn't just happen IN the beginning. Love WAS the beginning. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It wasn't something happened, and then love happened. Even when the heaven and the earth (the mind and the body... you) was dark and void and without form... the Spirit hovered over the face of the deep. There never has been and there never will be a time when God wasn't or won't be with us. He swore that He would never leave us nor forsake us. He's been there from the beginning, and He was there at the end (the cross, the end of the Old Covenant). And, in some ways more importantly, He's with us in all the middle part too. Every step of the way. Love got things going. And love keeps things going. This idea of a preemptive strike isn't one of being aggressive, or mean, or judging people, or getting your retaliation in first. This idea of a preemptive strike is about loving people first, last, and always. Its about giving what we've got no matter what we get from people. Its about breaking that cycle. Because an eye for an eye just leaves everyone blind. But when you turn the other cheek... when you show someone a more excellent way... that's when things take a turn. And if we're talking about a more excellent way (which, in the Bible is found in 1 Corinthians 12:31 and leads directly into the love chapter) then we're talking about things taking a turn for the better. We're talking about being thermostats instead of thermometers. SETTING the temperature instead of just taking the temperature and reacting to it. So when I quote my favorite book series and I say we need to get our retaliation in first, what I'm trying to say is... Start with love. Love IS the first and the last. The first Word, and the last Word. And when that's our attitude coming in, that gives us good footing. That good, strong foundation, right? I think if you go with love you can't go wrong. So why not START with love? Why not let love be our ONLY Word on EVERY subject? Why not launch a preemptive strike of love and let the pieces fall where they may? Maybe instead of destruction we'll see restoration. Make love not war, right? That's all I'm trying to say. If you have to kill 'em, kill 'em with kindness. Give them what they need, instead of what they give you.