Love is Pain?

I was going to kill a guy for snoring too loudly, but decided not to. I just beat and tortured him instead.

Human beings aren't capable of that kind of love, sadly. True goodness merely reminds us of how human we are, how incapable. Love is pain. June 6, 2008 9:37 PM

This comment was left anonymously on the previous post entitled "Love." I confess that firstly I felt angry. How dare this person leave such a message without letting me know who they were!? Well, I enabled anonymous comments so that people wouldn't have to have an account to leave a comment. Then I felt sad that they missed the point. As days passed, I realized that they totally got it! Of course we are incapable of complete God-like love. I suppose a few humans have come closer than most. Only Jesus was both God and man and thus able to give us a picture of the love God has in mind. And the commenter is 100% correct. "Love is pain." Jesus loved us to the pain of death. And in His death we are offered the gift of salvation and eternal life with Him the greatest Lover of all time.

Paul teaches us that we are not to use grace as an excuse for sinning. (see Romans 6) I think that the leap to not use incapableness as an excuse for not loving is not so far a jump. As long as I live and breathe on this earth, there will be sin in my life. However, I can choose to NOT pursue it. NOT to blatantly choose it. Pray for wisdom and discernment in my day to day activities to live as God has planned. I can also choose to love. To pursue love. To blatantly choose love. To pray for wisdom and discernment to love as God has planned. As long as I live and breathe on this earth, I will fall short of loving like God loves.

As a woman who is striving to grow closer to Him, a result is that I want to love more and more like Him. I know that I can't and won't be filled up with reciprocal human love. Do I cherish the human love I receive? You bet! Can I count on it satiating my God-created need for love? No way! ONLY God can do that. And it is something that I have to consciously work at daily. There are deep, deep caverns longing to be filled. Ice cream won't do it. Brody's hand won't do it. Iris' hugs won't. Nor a purring cat or loving husband. Trying to let other things fill those cavernous longings will only lead to further disappointment and frustrations. Letting God fill them, now that brings desire. Desire to be in His Presence more and more. Desire to bless Him by loving others the best I can.

To sum up, yes, love is (can be) pain. Yes, we are incapable of complete G0d-love. But do it anyway! Dive deep into the life-love of the Father. And in return, as a response, Love Large!

Love

Ok, you might have to bear with me on this one. The thoughts are not nearly well sussed out enough in my brain, but suddenly I felt the urge to get them out lest they fly away all together.

I've been reading a lot over the past few weeks. All sorts of things. I love reading - always have. But I will often go through self-induced reading droughts because a decent book is like a bag of cookies for me. Once I start, there's no stopping until I'm finished. (Ok, we address the eating issue another time - lol) A recurring theme has been love. Romantic love. Puppy love. Parent's love. Children's love. Patriotic love of country. Learning to love yourself. God's love. All kinds.

What I'm working through right now is (at least one of) the way(s) God's love is supposed to affect us as His people. We love others because He loves us. Period. End of discussion. Not because they deserve love. Not because they want to be loved. Not because they are easy to love. Not because of a joy we receive by loving them. But simply and purely because He loves us. (Do we deserve it? Do we always want it? Are we easy to love? Yep - rhetorical questions all) Some people even act as if they don't want that kind of love. Might even run from it. Turn their backs on it. Be un-lovely to it. Guess what?? They don't get to choose!! God's love pursues. It contends against the things we think we love. Why do we get things so mixed up?!

Yes, as willing recipients of God's/Christ's/Holy Spirit's Love we have many responsibilities. Perhaps we need to look at this one as one of the top priorities. Wouldn't it, couldn't it make things simpler for us. Quit worrying about what some might think. Who cares!!! I'm ok with being that off-the-wall-Jesus-girl-who-loves-without-caution. (Don't anyone get their undies in a bundle, I'm talking about God's love, not anything else...) We spend a lot of time loving people like us. What about the people not like us. What if we spend time and energy loving people that don't accept it? Or push it away? Does that give us an excuse to stop? Um, NO! God's pitcher of love doesn't run out. So we keep getting filled up with His Love-Water so we can keep pouring it on to others. We might feel empty in our humanness, so we have to remember that we get filled up by Him, not the folks around us. And we keep pouring it out. Sooner or later, they're bound to get at least a little wet!! And, hey, they might start to find that kind of God-love refreshing.

What about those who don't "get" God's love? What about those who have turned their backs on it because they think they aren't worthy? Newsflash!! Not a one of us is worthy. Could that be why so many don't drink in fully the love Christ offers? Shame. Ugh!! Another lie the enemy spins so easily. Of course, we don't deserve it. That's why He offers it! His pursuit of us with it via circumstances, His people, and all the other mysterious ways He battles for us can soften us. When we begin to recognize the pursuit, it can spur us on to desire more. But the true power comes in accepting it. That's when lives change. That's when we begin to reflect His love. That's when His love gets to shine! When we accept it for the amazing, beautiful and glorious gift that it is, it can't help but change us. Good grief, suddenly I've got the "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" commercial from the 70s in my head. I guess there's something to that...we can be so quick to share joy and love in something as "worldly" as a refreshing carbonated beverage, but we don't shout it from the rooftops that God loves us? And God loves them? And because God loves us, we love them.

Ok, I'm getting weird (the late hour may have something to do with it). Do something today that shows someone else God's love. Don't let it just be a "random act of kindness." Make it be an intentional act of God-ness. And leave a comment about what you did. (If you received this message in an email, you can click here to get the the actual blog and post something in the comment section.) If you can't think of something, pray that God will show you what to do and when and to whom. This is exciting! I'm praying for you right now as I type that some extra acts of God-ness will be out and about in the world today! Love large!!

Faithful Companion - part 2

The rest of the story...

The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you;

he will never leave you nor forsake you.

Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. ~Deuteronomy 31:8

Now THAT's faithful! Not only does He promise constancy. He promises to stay with us, humans. Mortals. We who mess up, who sin, who don't live up to the great plans He has for us. And what's more, He chooses to call us friend. Companion. (See John 15: 14) His Holy Spirit dwelling within us - way better than a dog on my chest! Sorry, Phoebs.

Here more words seem to just get in the way of the message. Live today with a consciousness of God as your friend.