Understanding part 3
Is there anything worse than doing something from the goodness of your heart and being totally misunderstood? Someone thinking that your love has an agenda? Guys... love doesn't HAVE an agenda, love IS the agenda! I'm convinced that everything we do comes down to either one of two reasons: Either we're trying to get love because we don't know and believe that we have it, or we're sharing the love we have becasue it's too good to keep to ourselves. Either way, Christ's love controls us. It's the reason we do what we do. Which is why we SHOULD be able to understand each other. We SHOULD be able to see that what someone does has more to do with THEM than it does with us. Judging someone reveals nothing about them, but everything about you. Because judging--by appearance--has to do only with the actions of the outer man. The surface stuff. The "what" but not the "why." So we find ourselves operating from "an eye for an eye" sort of Covenant. "He hurt me, so I'll hurt him back." But what we don't understand is WHY he hurt me. You can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So if he hurt me, it's because he's hurting. Again, it has more to do with HIM than it does with me. Why do you think Jesus instructed us to turn the other cheek? Because He wanted us to be doormats and let people walk all over us? I don't think so. I think it had more to do with Proverbs 10:12, "Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love coverth all sins." I think it had more to do with Jesus' own words in Matthew 5:9, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." I think it was more about compassion and understanding than "weakness." The MEEK will inherit the earth, right? And meekness is not weakness. It's strength under control. If you can take a hit from someone and not react in kind, that's being under control. That's showing them something they maybe haven't seen before. Something different. Something better. A more excellent way. And even more than just "wanting to hit them back but not doing it" is UNDERSTANDING why they hit you in the first place. Digging a little deeper and getting to the bottom of things. Getting to the heart of the matter; which is the heart of God beating with love. If you can love someone who is really hard to love--and I mean really understand, and accept, and LOVE them--then you've probably just changed their entire life. Because people who are hard to love probably aren't getting much love. And they probably need it pretty desperately. I think we can all understand that. Because understanding was given to us from the Lord when He gave us His Spirit. The Holy Spirit. Our love receptor. The Spirit of truth. And because we HAVE this understanding, we can extend it to others. We can give it, because we have it. We can release it, because we've received it. We don't have to worry about people understanding US and we can focus on understanding them. People think you have an ulterior motive for loving them? Love them anyway. Not because THEY understand, but because YOU do!