Love

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Life is a story

We all have a story to tell, right?

Your life, after all, is one big story that gets written a day at a time.

Of course, every story is different in one way or another, but we all have a lot more in common than we realize.

Can you list all the movies that retell Cinderella?

Exactly. There’s too many to count.

journalThe premise is the same but the small details–time, place, etc–are what make it different.

Our world is filled with brokenness: tragedy, addiction, abuse, divorce. Listen to enough stories and you hear about these things.

No one escapes life without a few sad chapters, with pages covered with tears, blood, and grime.

I am finding, though, that the greatest stories of redemption are found in books where sad chapters give way to victorious chapters.

The victorious chapters are when the villains–and all their filthy, disgusting lies–get their butts kicked.

Love, joy, mercy, hope, grace, forgiveness…..

These are the key elements of  victorious chapters.

But you have to remember that victorious chapters cannot replace the sad ones.

No amount of time or distance can eliminate the past.

Think of it this way:

If I read a book and hate the first half, I can’t decide to only read the second half next time. The story wouldn’t make any sense.

What I can do is choose to see how the character made peace with the past in order to move on.

I said earlier that we’re all more alike than we realize.

We’re all alike because we’re all storytellers.

Maybe you didn’t write the first part of your story.

Let that go.

Focus on the story you get to write.

Focus on the victorious chapters.

And share the hope–the redemption in your story–with the world.

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Showing kindness

Today at church we talked about kindness. 

I was voice interpreting and did pretty good. (I’ve only done it a five or six times so it was stop and start.)

The critic inside me was screaming, though, that I didn’t do a good job. I tried not to listen but it was hard. 

Maybe I can’t do this…

But I persevered because my mentor is teaching me to not give up, to give myself grace. 

We talk a lot about extending grace and kindness to others. And we definitely should!

My problem is that I’m great at giving it to others and terrible at giving it to myself. 

The voice I was hearing was me–expecting to not mess up, which is impossible because I’m a beginner. 

Talk about unrealistic expectations. Geez…

If we want to be gracious, merciful, and kind to others we must first understand that grace, mercy, and kindness is for us too. 

As Christians, God tells us to show others the love He gave to us. 

We can’t show love–or any of God’s characteristics–to others if we haven’t received it ourselves. 

Let’s remember this week to be kind. 

Start with yourself and go from there. 

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An incomprehensible love

I read an article once that said many Christians feel uncomfortable when questionable people attend church. You’ve probably read or heard something similar before too.

Homeless people, prostitutes, druggies, murderers, pedophiles….

Even reading that list probably made some of you cringe just a little.

But Jesus died for us all. He didn’t say, “Unless your past was questionable. That’s where I draw the line.”

If a questionable past can keep you out of Heaven, I’m already disqualified.

All of us deserve hell. We just can’t measure up to God’s righteousness by ourselves.

And that’s why God–from the foundations of the earth–had the plan of salvation ready to go.

God, creator of the world, knew BEFORE IT HAPPENED that man–his most special creation–would screw up.

Then he created us anyway.

Why?

Because He is a God of love and wanted a people to lavish that love upon.

This fact still blows me away!

God has ALWAYS loved you. He loved you BEFORE you were ever loveable. He loved you even when He KNEW mankind was going to say, “Buzz off! I’ve got this under control.”  

It’s a love that’s beyond comprehension.

Why is the church not sharing this wonderful news?

God's loveBecause we can’t run around telling people Jesus loves them just as they are. There are conditions you know!

So the church continues to avoid homeless people, prostitutes, druggies, murderers, pedophiles….

And don’t even pull the “So your saying that we should all just do whatever we want? That’s greasy grace” card.

It’s a tired argument that needs to die.

I’m simply stating the fact that a behavior modification program, which has never worked (just ask the children of Israel) is not the same as the transforming power of grace.

The “bad” people we try desperately to avoid need Jesus.

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The power of love

As a kid, I had a lot of questions.

Both my mom and my dad abandoned me. My dad left first and my mom followed several years later.

Psalm 139: 14 says, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well.”

I had to memorize this verse for Sunday School.

I won some candy, but the verse never made any sense to me.

I remember praying and asking God, “If I’m so fearfully and wonderfully made, how can you explain why my parents left? Did they not think so?”

Many of us come from a dark past. Things happened that shouldn’t have and people abused our trust.

And we had questions that no one could answer.

Me?

I didn’t trust God for a long time. I thought He was just like everyone else.

Sure, I gave him lip service, but inside I was hurting and angry at Him and everyone else.

The day I surrendered my life to Christ, do you know what He whispered in my ear?

You can trust me. I approve of you, Audra. I always have. All I have for you is love. 

When I opened up my heart to receive Christ’s love, everything changed. He was right. His love and acceptance was all I ever wanted.

And suddenly, verses like Psalm 139: 14 started to make sense.

The pain I experienced happened because of the poor choices of my parents–not because God’s Word and God’s purposes for my life weren’t true.

Don’t let past hurts hold you back from receiving Christ’s love.

No pain is so deep that Christ can’t heal your heart.

Take it from someone who ran away for far too long.

True freedom, true healing can only be found through the grace and love of Jesus Christ.

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Learning to Love and Loving to Share

In John 13:3-5, Jesus does something that really blows my mind.

“Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; He [rose] from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel and girded himself. After that he [poured] water into a [basin], and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.”

Jesus, the savior of the world, understood that everything was His, but He washed the disciples’ feet. I am humbled by this passage because I have to stop and think, “Would I be willing to do that if I understood that they should be washing my feet?”

Sometimes I feel that we as humans get caught up in the entitlement trap.

Look at me. I’m really something.

Yeah right.

This line of thinking is borderline idolatry. Satan’s entitlement issue is what ultimately led to His being cast out of Heaven.

I mean, everyone is always beating up on the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but really we have all been like them at some point.

While selfishness is a human tendency it should not be entertained as an option in the life of a believer. In fact, the mark of a servant leader is humility before God and others.

Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. Get this: Jesus washed Judas’ feet.

Holy cow! Talk about really loving on your enemies. I don’t know if I would be able to do that.

Think about it.

Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him. And he washed Judas’ feet? The guy who was about to turn him over to be killed?

Don’t forget about the other disciples. They were about to scatter and leave Jesus all alone. Peter denied Jesus three times. And he washed their feet?

When I read this passage of Scripture, it makes me love Jesus even more.

He willingly gave up his life for me. He suffered the wrath of others for me. He freely took my sins about his shoulder.

His sacrifice is the ultimate example of servant leadership in practice. 

I am driven to serve others because of what Christ did for me.

How can I not share? My cup is running over with love from my Father.

I want others to know what that’s like because God’s love is daily changing my life.

Let’s spend some time this week spreading that love around. Call a friend, send a card, or shoot someone a message on Facebook or Twitter. Just share what God is freely giving you. I know that I am finding it harder and harder not to.