I woke up today being overwhelmingly convicted about the way
I love people.
I don’t know what it was, really. I opened my eyes, and
began to think about so many different things. At first, I thought about my
book, and what it would mean if I became a published author. Would that give me
a platform to speak?
If so, what would I tell them?
That’s when it hit me. I would have to tell them about God’s
love.
So many of us have lead rough, damaged, unfulfilled lives
because we have been constantly been searching for our identities in what other
people say about us. We are constantly looking for words of affirmation,
quality time, meaningful touch, acts of service and receiving gifts. Even
though we’ve identified the five love languages, we still are want. We still
are lacking. We make up 36 more love languages to get the point across: “I don’t
feel loved.”
So what do we do? We search for it, and seek it out, and we
wonder why our empty shallow, sullen hearts are so hurt, so broken, so ripped
and torn to shreds by those people in the world who only want the same. . .
that is, to be LOVED.
We allow ourselves to be bullied, bruised, raped, and
wrecked because we desire ATTENTION of ANY SORT. We want people to be intimate
with us, because we were CREATED FOR meaningful, full relationships. We were
first and foremost created to be one in unity with our creator, our God, but
because of the human condition which blocks us from seeing His love for us, we
begin to look for it in other places.
Our culture is so RIPE for love that is beginning to STINK.
Teenage girls wear (or rather DON’T wear) immodest clothing because they want
to be noticed by boys. Husbands and Wives enter into adulterous affairs because
they have lost the passion. Gays and Lesbians SHOUT for the right to be married
because the ONLY other person who showed them any affection just happens to be
someone of their same sex. PEOPLE KILL
THEMSELVES because they can’t find ONE SINGLE PERSON to tell them they are
WORTH IT!!
Don’t we see it? Are we so blind? The people of the earth
are CRYING out for love. Their souls are SCREAMING out for what they so
desperately desire. Our souls are famished, starving, thirsty for the one true
thing that will satisfy us, Love. The one thing that will ease our pain, that
will refresh our wrinkled, withered heart. We are a dog on a chain who is in the middle
of the summer in Florida who is just out of reach of his water bowl.
We are DYING. THEY are dying. EVERYONE is dying.
Even members of our very CHURCH congregations are thrashing
about in emotional cancer, because we somehow can’t seem to get OUTSIDE of
ourselves and LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR. I’ve
talked to so many people this week who can’t put their CHRISTIANESE aside to
love those who need it most. A brash teenager. A needy roommate. An unsafe
friend. A CRYING MOTHER.
Even I am so guilty of this, because when it comes down to
it, I find it difficult to love my own family, because I’ve been so hurt and
damaged by the world.
And so I wake up this morning, and I wonder what God wants
me to tell the world, and I can practically hear Him SCREAMING it from heaven: “KIRSTEN!
TELL THEM I LOVE THEM! AND THEN LOVE THEM LIKE I WOULD!”
How could I not cry? How could I not respond? I woke up in
prayer, “Yes Lord. I’ll tell everyone. Everyone. If you give me the chance, I’ll
speak of your forgiveness, I’ll preach of your love. I’ll do it.”
Love God, Love People, on this hang all the LAW and the
PROPHETS (horribly paraphrased by me.) Matthew 22:34-40. But even so Jesus, the
MASTER and MAKER of LOVE answered such. Love God, Love others.
God is Love. Love. Love. LOVE.
What aren’t we getting here? Why isn’t it breaking through?
Doesn’t anyone SEE this? I feel like I’m taking CRAZY PILLS!!
Get out there and freaking LOVE somebody. LOVE SOMEONE
ABSURDLY. Love someone until it’s almost AWKWARD. For God’s sake, LOVE your
FREAKING CHRISTIAN BROTHER!! Get over your DOGMA and your THEOLOGY differences
and LOVE THEM!!
This is the ONLY way we are going to show the world that we
ARE DIFFERENT. Otherwise, why the hell would they want to be like us?
Newsflash.
They WON’T.
