Worthy part 1
This one is a little bit tricky for me, but only because I'm so far in one direction on it. Normally I have an almost Will Graham-esque kind of super empathy where I can almost immediately and fully see both sides of a given issue. Which is why I almost always side with PEOPLE rather than taking a stand on ISSUES. I think the only important (or at the very least the most important) things in the world are God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. That, to me, is the long and the short of it. So when I say what I'm going to say its not me going against myself. Its me trying to explain myself. I always say, "When it comes to love... deserve's got nothing to do with it." Because, as I'm hoping to expand on for the next few days, we are ALL by the simple criteria of being human beings, worthy of love. And its easy to quote John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Jesus gave His life for the WORLD. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" (John 12:32). He drew ALL MEN unto Himself. INTO Himself. So that all of humanity could come out of the flawed, sinful, walking dead experience of being in Adam and so that all of humanity could experience the everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life of God. A life of trying to prove our worth in order to earn our bread (or, the thing we REALLY wanted... love) by the sweat of our brow was traded for a life where we know and believe that we are loved and can, by receiving and releasing that love, live Jesus' life OF love! The problem, of course, is that we've been with ourselves at our worst. We know all of the horrible things we've done because we were literally and physically right there doing them. And for some reason, in our own minds, those bad things always seem to outweigh the good things. So we disqualify ourselves. We rob ourselves of the gift we've been given because we don't think we deserve it. Which, again, is why I always say, "Deserve's got nothing to do with it." God doesn't love us because of what we do or don't do. God loves us because of who we are. And because of who He is. Its like we read Romans 8:39, "Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord," but then we let anything and everything separate us from that love. We, like Adam and Eve in Eden's misty garden, hide from the presence of God (the presence of love) because we think He's mad at us. Guys... God is NOT mad at you. God is mad ABOUT you. Head over heels in love with you. God created us. And you can't create something from nothing. So we are literally extensions of HIM. Love created us out of Himself. And love can only create love. We were created to BE loved, and to love each other with that same love. That's our entire purpose. That's why we exist. We are the visible expression of the God who is love. We aren't just loved... we ARE LOVE! For no other reason than existing. So, what I'm trying to say (and will keep trying to say) is: You are worth it. You are worthy of love. No matter what.