Vanity part 4
I think--I HOPE--this is an encouraging Rant. Well, really, I hope they all are. That's kind of the point: Edification and encouragement. I think that's kind of the least we can do for each other. Which, by the way, is also the most we can do for each other. I've been stuck on this idea of love being the standard. Literally the Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end of the conversation. Because it all comes down to love. Giving the love that we have. Receiving and releasing the love that God has given to us. The problem comes when we get twisted around and focus on all the other things. The distractions. I once knew someone who was concerned almost completely with distracting themselves from what was going on. And I always thought it was more important to focus on the right thing than distract yourself from whatever else. Set your affection on things above, and not on things on the earth. Make sure you are magnifying love in your life. Because what you magnify in your life is what will manifest in your life. What you feed is what will grow. If you keep trying to get that carrot, but never end up with anything but the stick, you WILL get discouraged. You WILL get frustrated and will probably even give up. Listen, making mistakes is not the same thing as failing. The only true failure is failure to try. Mistakes happen so we can learn from them. And learning and growing is a big part of what this life is all about. Growing in grace. Growing in the knowledge of Christ. Not becoming someone we're not, but accepting who we really are. Understanding who we really are. Embracing who we really are. BEING who we really are. Vanity is emptiness. Thinking we're lacking something. And vanity is trying to fill that emptiness, or that lack, with anything other than God. Anything other than love. Look, if you know me at all you know I'm not a religious dude. At all. But I do love people. Because my heavenly Father loves me. And that love that He pours into me and fills me up with equips and empowers me to empty myself of that same love. That's how we obey the New Commandment. We let Jesus love us and then we love Him back by loving each other. And it all comes back to the truth that you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. You can't fill yourself. But you can share what you've already been filled with. We don't have to "get" love, because God has already given us His love. We don't have to earn it, or collect it. We simply have to receive it. Receive it and release it. We simply have to fill ourselves with what we've already been filled with. In the beginning we were dark and void and without form. But then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. HE did what needed to be done. HE filled us up with Himself. He gave His life for us... and TO us. So that we could have it. So that we could experience it by giving it away. Experience His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of Love by sharing it with the people around us. There's no vanity in that. That's the secret of life: Let God love and love Him back by loving people. That's the opposite of empty. That's a full life worth living!