Lessons on Love (Happy Valentine's Day!)
Its Friday (its Friday, Friday...**cue Rebecca Black's song**) and its my dad's birthday! .....and it's Valentine's Day. I wanted to write about this for sometime and since today is the day that the world celebrates 'love', I thought I'd share with you what God has been teaching me about this concept of love.
A few weeks ago, after a conversation that lasted a total of 5minutes about something insignificant, I began to feel my blood boil. My heart went hot with such rage, such hate for people. All people are terrible, I thought. Too judgmental. Too opinionated. Too hurtful. Too selfish and self-centered. And I found myself unable to distance even myself from this distaste; all people, myself included, we are terrible creatures... Throughout my day, I couldn't shake off this bitterness. So I did what I always do, I journaled. I and God have conversations in journals, we have since I was a child. Usually I can hand these things to God, write them down and have the burdens lifted. And so, I journaled. I wrote down my heart. But as I reread what I wrote, I stopped in my tracks. Hate had colored my journal, my dialogue with God, with something dark and un-god-like. Un-Christlike.
The subject of a conversation that started this whole thing was something small. Something so trivial exposed something very heavy that was eroding at my heart. Hate.
And so began God's work on this particular area of my heart...
Matthew 5:21-22, 1 John 3:14-18, 1 John 4: 7-11
1. Redefining Hate- Does hate really erode at our hearts? After all, hate is just a four letter word. Does hate really have all that power? On the sermon on the mount, recorded in Matthew 5, Jesus redefined righteousness, what is right before a holy God. And in discussing what is Right before God, Jesus uses the example of murder. (Mat 5:21-22) Common law states that murder is wrong and murderers will bear the wrath of judgment. But Jesus says " I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause is in danger of the judgment". Jesus when defining what is right before God, equates hate with murder! Jesus teaches that being right before God starts at the heart. God is concerned with the heart of the matter! Murder starts at the heart with hate. (1 John 3:14-15) "whoever hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him". So, hate = murder. 1 John 3:14 says that "he who does not love (aka hate) his brethren abides in death". Hate is heavy. Just like the layers of cholesterol that build up and clog our arteries, hate builds on itself. Years of bitterness and hate adds up eventually and the word of God says that it leads to death. Hate = death. Basically, hate=badness. Defining what hate is lead me to question what love truly is?
2. Redefining Love (part 1). Love is God. Love does. "Those three words are said too much. They're not enough" (Snow Patrol, Chasing Cars). "I love you"- For me, this is a phrase that rolls off my tongue. I grew up telling my parents 'goodnight, love you' or 'bye, love you'. Love has become something that we as a society say. Its become an overused phrase. And I think Valentine's day highlights this. Hallmark cards are filled with 'I love you's'; but love is not merely something to be said. Its something that is to be done. In 1 John 4:8 it says that God is love. And God demonstrated love. "the Love of God was manifested toward us that God has sent His only begotten Son unto the world that we might live through Him". 1 John 3:16 " By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us". God gave us the ultimate example of what love is. Love is an action - God gave, God sent, God laid down His life. Love is a verb. Love is an action word. Love requires that we do something. 1 John 3:18 "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth". True love requires an action. "Let's not just talk about love, let's practice real love" (The Message). Love starts with God. God demonstrated love therefore we must demonstrate love. Act out love. Love is more than a four letter word. Love does.
3. Love is giving. Love is to be demonstrated in our lives. And it starts with giving. 1 John 3:17 "Whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?" Love is to see a need and fill the need. Love is first to see the needs of our friends, our family. And second to give to that need. To fill the lack in our friends and families lives by giving. I think I need to stop. And you, you need to stop. Stop talking about how we are going to do it. Stop with the planning and all the thinking. Start doing. Practically act out love. Start with basic needs that people have around you. See the needs of individuals around you and step up and fill those needs. Feed your friends. Drive your family around. An example that just came to my mind- my friend, Z offers her apartment to friends that need a place to crash for a few weeks. Practical and Simple. Act out love by giving. Filling the practical needs that others have around us.
4. Love is giving, the best of ourselves. I like to think that I give. Give when I can. I definitely give money to the homeless.. well, I gave a dollar to the homeless man, at the corner of the street. When he made eye contact with me for longer than 3 seconds... and the signal was red... and he was holding a sign that said 'God bless you' with a flag of Texas...I definitely gave to the homeless..... In the offering bucket on Sundays, I definitely place my dollar in. If I remember to bring some change with me. Point is, I give when I can, isn't that enough? But honestly and seriously, I can't remember a time when I gave, when it hurt to give. I cannot remember when I gave, when I couldn't give. When I lacked... When giving meant giving my everything, my very best. Giving transcends money. Giving of the best of ourselves includes our time. our energy. our heart. In a busy schedule, it is not always easy to sit with patients, hold their hands, as a diagnosis is made that transforms their world in an instant. But giving of our best requires that we lay down our life. Lay our schedules down. 1 John 3:16 " He laid down His life for us. We also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren". Love is giving. Giving our best. Moreover, giving our best requires that we lay our time, our energy, our comfort aside. Lay ourselves aside for the benefit of others! Love requires that we inconvenience ourselves that someone else may be convinced of the love of God within us! My friend that offers her place for friends, she doesn't just let others crash at her place, she gives up her bed and takes the couch! Giving our best requires sacrifice on our part.
5. Love is giving to the worst of people. Love is doing and love is giving. Love is giving your best to others. Love is giving the best of yourself to others, even if they misuse your time, your energy. your resources. your money. Love is giving the best. The best of our possessions and the finest of our things to those who do not deserve such love. Love is demonstrated by God. Romans 5:8 says 'God demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us". We were not worthy of life. Not worthy of love. We were dead in our sins. We as humanity rejected God. And yet, God died for us, gave life for us. And yet, God loved us. Matthew 5:44 "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you many be sons of your Father in heaven". Give your best to people. Give your finest. Your best. even to those who don't deserve it. Give it anyways. After all, God did for us.
6. Redefining Love (part 2). After a long week at work, I was looking forward to a long 3-day weekend. Carelessly, I pinned my work badge on a board above my full-length mirror. (Not the usual place I hang my badge). The weekend came and went and Monday morning a few minutes before I was supposed to be at work, I frantically searched for my badge. For two weeks there after, I searched for my work badge. I searched my car. below the car seat. Between the cracks. In my purses. In my backpacks. In my closet. In my laundry basket. In my jacket pockets. Pant pockets. shirt and scrub pockets. I searched my entire (tiny) apartment for my badge. In places that I haven't looked in since I've moved in four years ago! And yet everyday, I would look in that mirror, looking past the dangling badge right above my head, to fix my hair. I think that's how love is. We miss love, looking at ourselves. At our messes, at our sins. We miss love as we search for it in other places, in other things, in other people. We miss out on great, true, real love. 1 John 4:8-10 " In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might love through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins". This is love. This is real love. True love. God is love. Love is demonstrated. Love is demonstrated in that God gave. God sent His Son so that we can have a relationship with Him. But He gave His very best. God gave His best possession for you and me. He gave His only begotten Son. Moreover, God in flesh, Jesus Christ laid down his very life for you and me. He gave His best when we were at our worst. He gave when we did not deserve it. We were sinners, enemies of God, condemned and destined to die. "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:6-8)
Love is this - God is love.
A few weeks ago, after a conversation that lasted a total of 5minutes about something insignificant, I began to feel my blood boil. My heart went hot with such rage, such hate for people. All people are terrible, I thought. Too judgmental. Too opinionated. Too hurtful. Too selfish and self-centered. And I found myself unable to distance even myself from this distaste; all people, myself included, we are terrible creatures... Throughout my day, I couldn't shake off this bitterness. So I did what I always do, I journaled. I and God have conversations in journals, we have since I was a child. Usually I can hand these things to God, write them down and have the burdens lifted. And so, I journaled. I wrote down my heart. But as I reread what I wrote, I stopped in my tracks. Hate had colored my journal, my dialogue with God, with something dark and un-god-like. Un-Christlike.
The subject of a conversation that started this whole thing was something small. Something so trivial exposed something very heavy that was eroding at my heart. Hate.
And so began God's work on this particular area of my heart...
Matthew 5:21-22, 1 John 3:14-18, 1 John 4: 7-11
1. Redefining Hate- Does hate really erode at our hearts? After all, hate is just a four letter word. Does hate really have all that power? On the sermon on the mount, recorded in Matthew 5, Jesus redefined righteousness, what is right before a holy God. And in discussing what is Right before God, Jesus uses the example of murder. (Mat 5:21-22) Common law states that murder is wrong and murderers will bear the wrath of judgment. But Jesus says " I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause is in danger of the judgment". Jesus when defining what is right before God, equates hate with murder! Jesus teaches that being right before God starts at the heart. God is concerned with the heart of the matter! Murder starts at the heart with hate. (1 John 3:14-15) "whoever hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him". So, hate = murder. 1 John 3:14 says that "he who does not love (aka hate) his brethren abides in death". Hate is heavy. Just like the layers of cholesterol that build up and clog our arteries, hate builds on itself. Years of bitterness and hate adds up eventually and the word of God says that it leads to death. Hate = death. Basically, hate=badness. Defining what hate is lead me to question what love truly is?
2. Redefining Love (part 1). Love is God. Love does. "Those three words are said too much. They're not enough" (Snow Patrol, Chasing Cars). "I love you"- For me, this is a phrase that rolls off my tongue. I grew up telling my parents 'goodnight, love you' or 'bye, love you'. Love has become something that we as a society say. Its become an overused phrase. And I think Valentine's day highlights this. Hallmark cards are filled with 'I love you's'; but love is not merely something to be said. Its something that is to be done. In 1 John 4:8 it says that God is love. And God demonstrated love. "the Love of God was manifested toward us that God has sent His only begotten Son unto the world that we might live through Him". 1 John 3:16 " By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us". God gave us the ultimate example of what love is. Love is an action - God gave, God sent, God laid down His life. Love is a verb. Love is an action word. Love requires that we do something. 1 John 3:18 "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth". True love requires an action. "Let's not just talk about love, let's practice real love" (The Message). Love starts with God. God demonstrated love therefore we must demonstrate love. Act out love. Love is more than a four letter word. Love does.
3. Love is giving. Love is to be demonstrated in our lives. And it starts with giving. 1 John 3:17 "Whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?" Love is to see a need and fill the need. Love is first to see the needs of our friends, our family. And second to give to that need. To fill the lack in our friends and families lives by giving. I think I need to stop. And you, you need to stop. Stop talking about how we are going to do it. Stop with the planning and all the thinking. Start doing. Practically act out love. Start with basic needs that people have around you. See the needs of individuals around you and step up and fill those needs. Feed your friends. Drive your family around. An example that just came to my mind- my friend, Z offers her apartment to friends that need a place to crash for a few weeks. Practical and Simple. Act out love by giving. Filling the practical needs that others have around us.
4. Love is giving, the best of ourselves. I like to think that I give. Give when I can. I definitely give money to the homeless.. well, I gave a dollar to the homeless man, at the corner of the street. When he made eye contact with me for longer than 3 seconds... and the signal was red... and he was holding a sign that said 'God bless you' with a flag of Texas...I definitely gave to the homeless..... In the offering bucket on Sundays, I definitely place my dollar in. If I remember to bring some change with me. Point is, I give when I can, isn't that enough? But honestly and seriously, I can't remember a time when I gave, when it hurt to give. I cannot remember when I gave, when I couldn't give. When I lacked... When giving meant giving my everything, my very best. Giving transcends money. Giving of the best of ourselves includes our time. our energy. our heart. In a busy schedule, it is not always easy to sit with patients, hold their hands, as a diagnosis is made that transforms their world in an instant. But giving of our best requires that we lay down our life. Lay our schedules down. 1 John 3:16 " He laid down His life for us. We also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren". Love is giving. Giving our best. Moreover, giving our best requires that we lay our time, our energy, our comfort aside. Lay ourselves aside for the benefit of others! Love requires that we inconvenience ourselves that someone else may be convinced of the love of God within us! My friend that offers her place for friends, she doesn't just let others crash at her place, she gives up her bed and takes the couch! Giving our best requires sacrifice on our part.
5. Love is giving to the worst of people. Love is doing and love is giving. Love is giving your best to others. Love is giving the best of yourself to others, even if they misuse your time, your energy. your resources. your money. Love is giving the best. The best of our possessions and the finest of our things to those who do not deserve such love. Love is demonstrated by God. Romans 5:8 says 'God demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us". We were not worthy of life. Not worthy of love. We were dead in our sins. We as humanity rejected God. And yet, God died for us, gave life for us. And yet, God loved us. Matthew 5:44 "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you many be sons of your Father in heaven". Give your best to people. Give your finest. Your best. even to those who don't deserve it. Give it anyways. After all, God did for us.
6. Redefining Love (part 2). After a long week at work, I was looking forward to a long 3-day weekend. Carelessly, I pinned my work badge on a board above my full-length mirror. (Not the usual place I hang my badge). The weekend came and went and Monday morning a few minutes before I was supposed to be at work, I frantically searched for my badge. For two weeks there after, I searched for my work badge. I searched my car. below the car seat. Between the cracks. In my purses. In my backpacks. In my closet. In my laundry basket. In my jacket pockets. Pant pockets. shirt and scrub pockets. I searched my entire (tiny) apartment for my badge. In places that I haven't looked in since I've moved in four years ago! And yet everyday, I would look in that mirror, looking past the dangling badge right above my head, to fix my hair. I think that's how love is. We miss love, looking at ourselves. At our messes, at our sins. We miss love as we search for it in other places, in other things, in other people. We miss out on great, true, real love. 1 John 4:8-10 " In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might love through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins". This is love. This is real love. True love. God is love. Love is demonstrated. Love is demonstrated in that God gave. God sent His Son so that we can have a relationship with Him. But He gave His very best. God gave His best possession for you and me. He gave His only begotten Son. Moreover, God in flesh, Jesus Christ laid down his very life for you and me. He gave His best when we were at our worst. He gave when we did not deserve it. We were sinners, enemies of God, condemned and destined to die. "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:6-8)
Love is this - God is love.
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