Puddle Jumper part 2
I think it's easy to get to the place where you've been hurt by someone you loved. Not because you loved them, but because of the expectations you put on them. And when that happens I think it's easy to blame love. "Love hurts." No, it doesn't. Love heals. Love edifies and fortifies. What hurts is getting let down. What hurts is feeling like we are not loved. What hurts is loving someone with the expectation that you will get what you want from it. Guys... love is unconditional. It doesn't demand anything. It's not about getting. Because it IS giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. Look at my key memory verse for tonight: "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). Jesus. Telling us how to treat people that treat us poorly. Jesus. Telling us that it doesn't matter what other people do. That it matters what YOU do. Telling us that all we have to do is let what's inside--what's really inside... His love--come out. By knowing and believing that it's in there. Telling us to cross oceans for people whether they are willing to jump a puddle for us or not. Telling us to go the extra mile even when it's someone compelling us to go that first mile. It wasn't our idea. We didn't necessarily want to do it. But someone needed us to. We can look at that as "a friend in need is a pest," or we can look at that as an opportunity to love someone. We can look at it as an opportunity to preach the gospel. To show people who God is. We can look at it as an opportunity to be who we really are. To put our true nature on display. And, for the record, our true nature is the new nature. The nature of God. The nature of love. Love is not something we have to try to do. Love is not something we do in response to someone else's actions. Love is what we do in response to GOD'S actions. We love because He first loved us. We give what we have because He first gave it to us. We let Him love the hell out of us and then we love Him back by loving each other. We do what we do as unto the Lord, not men. So it doesn't matter how people treat us. It matters how our heavenly Father treats us. That's the midset shift that we need. That's what we need to focus on. Let God be true and every man a liar, right? Don't worry about what people are doing, or not doing. Don't put expectations on things. Take things as they come, and improve them by letting the light of the world shine on you... and out of you! Shine through you! That's what this life is for. That's what this life is all about. And, unlike people, when you turn your expectations to God... he never lets you down. You might not always get what you want, but your heavenly Father will always give you what you need. So DO cross oceans. DO judge righteous judgment. And DO love people no matter what. I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said he destroyed his enemies by making them his friends. That's the only way to truly "fix" or heal the world. It comes from loving people no matter what. Giving what you've got no matter what. Letting the love of God--which is already living inside you--come out... no matter what!