Love the Right Way

Continuing on the same vein as Sunday’s sermon on becoming a family of commitment (Berean Baptist Church), this morning’s study from 1 Peter 1:22-25 dealt with being committed to loving the family of believers. The sermon I half listened to (I was trying to balance my budget at the same time…) brought up a question. If I’m with an un-believer and a believer, and something comes up that may offend one of them, do I risk offending the believer or the unbeliever? The answer was you risk offense to the unbeliever because we’re called to love our brothers and sisters in Christ just as Christ loved us. “By this will all men know” how great it is to be a part of the family of Christ. It was cool. We have a lot of heart issues that impede us from doing what we really need to be doing, I’ve been realizing it lately. I have to keep that love in my heart for my spiritual family when (many times) it’s easy to take them for granted just like I do my actual family. On top of that, I worry and I find myself like Martha, getting caught up and being distracted so that I miss things that should be clear: like my widow neighbor, my unsaved co-worker. Yikes. A committed Christian’s gotta get her focus clear. Love the right way, then do as you please.

Love from the Heart

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for

“All flesh is like grass / and all its glory like the flower of grass. / The grass withers, / and the flower falls, / but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

- Peter 1:22-25

Check out ‘His Love Stories’ @ Boundless!

Just finished reading a beautiful article by Elisabeth Adams on the Boundless webzine – love it! When you have time, you need to definitely check out “His Love Stories“. It’s so beautiful to see that God works and God loves and God moves His people together to understand how deep His love is for US through real flesh and blood intimate relationships. Why is this so cool? Oh, I’ll tell you why! He wrote His love story on my heart, too! Our God is amazing!

For more good reading: [Don't] Mind the Gap: Part 1 also at Boundless.

This Should Be Easy

A piece of cake - all dandy and rosy

When the choice of high school came around for me in 8th grade, the Lord allowed me to be introduced to an amazing all-girls school that wouldn’t have even been an option if it weren’t for the Junior High I was attending. It never would have crossed my path. But girls came to my school one day, talked about this Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart, and painted a picture of Christian growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom. Eventually, I found myself and two other girls from school sitting with our Principal regarding an opportunity: we had been offered scholarships.

Several weeks later my parents and I visited Duchesne and thus continued my love for learning and study through commitment and responsibility. It was there in such a learning environment that I gained my confidence and a lot of other life-lessons God knew I had to learn. I’m so thankful.

When I was searching for a college, I knew God would make a way so that it was clear where I would end up. I had my heart in Texas, my mind on seeing snow, and my interest in being immersed in a Christian culture. Like a selfish date, I picked and tried them all, got to spend time at each of my universities, even check out the cafeterias and interesting groups to see if this would be The One to propel me into the rest of my life. After all the acceptance letters came in, God’s provision stopped short at my heart’s, Baylor University. I remember crying at school in the hallway just devastated at the fact that I hadn’t been thought worthy enough of the sufficient aid I needed to attend.

Days later, Trinity’s financial aid packet came in. God opened the door to four years of growth and learning in a beautiful city with so many amazing people from such different worlds that I will forever be grateful.

When guys eventually came into the picture, God had a way of using distance as a teaching tool. There was a gentleman I met in church one morning (like destiny!) who was from the army base. Not only did stars align, but my car ran out of gas after church just as he was walking by the gas station on his way home. He “allowed” me to pull him over and wait in the car as I pumped gas, while he could have easily made the distance home without my “help.” I remember it was an awesome day outside. Thus began a pretty cool time of seeing myself valued through a guys’ eyes. Unregrettable and lovely. So when months passed and God moved us apart, there were some more ways of growing. Distance and faith made life a little easier when his heart began to change and mine stayed. Our faiths were no longer consistent and the distance served as a literal breaking point. Things indeed fell into place, and eventually, I was grateful.

Praise God He knows His child and how to give me never more than I can handle because my heart thinks all too often that this should be easy. But I’m not promised a life of ease, or blinking arrows. Or no pain. Things fall into place, but my heart doesn’t always follow suit. The Bible reminds us in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful…who can know it?” Who can know it? Christ alone. 

So God works with me still. I’m not sure how much weight to put on this but in my morning study, I opened my Bible and it landed on the introduction to Hosea. Man. How prone we are to wander. Just as Hosea’s wife had a good thing in a secure love, we miss out. We turn the other way and take too long to be thankful. While, in every monumental life process – school, relationships, family – God proves to the faithful that He is with us, we wait and want our hearts to coincide when sometimes it’s been in the wrong place to begin with. 

My heart is in the wrong place this morning. It’s following a path that God has separated me from more than any physical distance. And I’m praying that He helps me during this time to return to Him, to let my heart line up with where He is. Like the opportunity He so graciously presented to Gomer, I pray that He helps me return to Him with a better promise than an easy life: a changed heart as a blessed, joyful child of God. I would be forever thankful.

Love the Right Way

I think it’s possible to love the wrong way. My intentions can show that I might put a limit on how far or how much love I might give. They can tell me if I’ve mistaken love for something else, or if I’ve ignored it for shameful reasons. That’s loving all wrong. But ”the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable” (Psalm 10:32).

Loving the right way doesn’t come with butterflies. It doesn’t come with an A+ or a round of applause. You don’t always get a feeling or a voice in the night. Loving the right way is patient, it’s righteous, godly, and it takes your whole being. Loving the right way takes practice. And it’s not easy. It speaks through everything you do. It brings you closer to God, to His glory, to His people. And it will always return.

1 Corinthians 13

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Charity sufferth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth (boasts) not itself, is not puffed up,

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. ~~~

Prone to Wander

(wander like a giraffe? I don’t know, just went to the zoo and wanted to post a picture…)

God is so good. You know? There’s no comparison to the beauty He gives and the love He has. Even though we are so conflicted and confused and have so many questions, He’s still there. He still allows the sun to shine, allows the birds to sing, allows the day to end. There’s no question for Him too big, too insignificant that He can’t come in and let you know He’s there. Amazing! Sometimes I have no peace whatsoever about situations, relationships, and then the Holy Spirit gives me peace like a gorgeous sleep and I know God still walks with me. In moments when I’m prone to wander and doubt God’s power and love for me, I’m thankful that He’s already taken my heart and won’t ever let go – no matter what.  

Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise His Name I’m fixed upon it
Name of God’s redeeming love.Hither to thy love has blessed me
Thou has brought me to this place
And I know thy hand will bring me
Safely home by thy good grace
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Bought me with His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee:

 

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Bleeding Love

 

Earlier today my mother heard a part of a song called “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis. Her voice is amazing and I think she holds a note for like 6 8-counts or something. But she asked me what it meant to bleed love (as if I was in tune to romantic expressions). To make a comparison, it reminds me of Daughtry’s “It’s Not Over.” There’s this desire to give selflessly, romantically even though you’re conflicted. The relationship’s deteriorating, friends don’t support you, the love’s killing you (“you cut me open”? hi)…it’s self-inflicted heartache. It’s not completely healthy. Given the proper conditions, I’d be stuck in bed crying my eyes out listening to it. The give and take we have in relationships - romantic or friendly – should come out of mutual love and respect. We want to know that we’re not alone, not the only ones loving, not the only one needing love. No need hurting ourselves over love that isn’t returned. It’s one thing to mourn over loss, it’s another to deliberately put ourselves through the pain.  

Life and Internet Shopping

My lovely friend Adria gave me some helpful philosophy the other day that made me smile. She explained that life is a little like internet shopping:

You know what you want; you’ve bought it; and now you’re just waiting for the FedEx package.

Live like you expect the most of the life that’s already been promised to you. Don’t get too caught off guard when route 1, 2, or 3 gets stale. Keep going toward your goal.