this morning, i woke up feeling vulnerable.. Some days, I wear my heart on my sleeve and I don't want "to put myself out there" too much. I've always liked writing because writing is a way to express feelings safely. I feel safe behind a keyboard. Some days I let things get to me...It seems that sometimes the heart has a way of remembering...the human heart, that is..
The human heart has a way of shrinking away...after it has been hurt a certain amount of times..it has a way of balling itself up..shrinking...shriveling like a little dried up flower...but love in it's purest form has a way of pouring itself into the heart, like water..
Pure love, can cause a tiny little withered heart to bloom.
There is a verse in the Bible that says "love hopes all things..love keeps no record of wrong."
Our insecurites and human fears are what keep our hearts small...because..love..true love..forgets.
True love says.."It's ok that you have hurt me. I believe in who are you are..Not in the person that you were. I choose to forget."
that is true love.
True love hopes. What is hope?
Hope says, I believe that the future will be better than the past. Hope says, " you are more than the sum of the things you have done. There is a better path laid out for you." That's what hope says..
Love is humble.
Love says, "I'm not as important as I thought I was."
At some point in life..our thoughts will take us into two places..
Thinking we are the queens and kings of the universe..thinking that we are entitled. thinking we are deserving of so much, even if it costs someone else something..
And sometimes, we think that we are worth little. We fall into the trap of thinking that we are nobody's.. I used to think of myself as the bottom rung on the totem pole of life..
but I later realized that many of the men Iallowed in my life didn't love me with true love..they didn't help me to aspire to the woman that i was meant to be..they loved me with imperfect, human hearts..
We all have one.
Only after I came to know Jesus did I ever truly understand the depth of true love. The kind of love that says, " you are somebody." You were created to give and receive love."
Is our purpose really that simple? To love?
Perhaps it is..perhaps we overcomplicate our lives?
We think we need things..we make plans..they fail..we make other plans..they may fail or succeed..
but in the end, what really matters?
IN the end, all that really matters is what we have done with the love that God gave us. How we used it matters..
I hope that I use all the love that God gives me..to encourage, to inspire, to create,..
to shine as a light..
Today I was thinking of a little song I used to know.. "This little light of mine.. I'm going to let it shine."
I kept singing and I got to the part that says, "Don't let Satan blow it out.. I'm going to let it shine"
For some reason, those words really spoke to me....The thought was simple but profound. The entire purpose of the enemy..is to steal, to kill, to destroy, Our LOVE...
The enemy wants to kill our love.
He wants us angry at those around us. He wants bickering, pettiness, unforgiveness..
the enemy feasts on road rage...and criticism.
He loves finger pointing and gossip. .
and, most of all, he loves lies..
because all of those things..somehow kill love..
they cause a heart to stop trusting..they cause a heart to shrivel up..and look like something dead and withered...
I'm glad that there is a force greater than the enemy.
I'm glad that God is the source of all things good, and love can shine like a light in darkness. Deny the enemy, love when it is hard. Love with intensity..
Love with a heart that is less human and more like God's..
Love childlike.
Love in a way that always protects and never tears down.
Love in a way that builds...
Love in a way that says, "I choose to give God glory through all this madness."
Love in a way that says, I am not as important as you are, stranger.
If we truly believe in Christ, like we say we do, then no one is a stranger.. we should see one another as part of the same flock...and if they have strayed..we should, with our Love, do all the we can to carry them back into the pasture..
The green pasture of rest..and hope..
The pasture that hold families...
Here is today's "love is" list..
Share your own "love is"list with me....
Love is..
buying a cup of coffee for the person waiting in line behind you
choosing not to retaliate when someone offends
making care packages for the homeless
letting it go...
doing extra duties at work..
praying for those who have wronged you..
_____
Anne Voskamp writes of Love...Here is an excerpt from her blog..
Its hard to know what that is —
when it’s a spotlight
that heats up a prophet’s fervor.
When ardency kindles with a microphone
and holiness is this blazing performance for audience and applause.
But what is that,
that zealous ember in the dark,
when a woman wipes the drool from her father’s chin
and carries him down the hall to the toilet,
when a mother lays down bits of her singular life
to wash the bowls and the underwear of the teenager calling her a whore
and a missionary bends in a jungle, a brothel, a slum
and nobody applauds?
Are sacrifices the secret, sacred rites
that are gifts
offered with no thought of
return on investment,
given in the dark
when the only light is
His
and your one flaming heart?
Who’s defining the terms when it’s an honor to be awarded
and a sacrifice to be called by God?
I do confess to wondering this –
if the call isn’t so much about carrying your Cross across a lit stage
but down the Via Dolorosa
and if the truth of it is
that the word altar comes from the Latin ‘altus’ meaning high —
because the realest altars burn
where only Heaven sees.
And that, is LOVE..
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