About a year ago, the Lord placed 1 John 2: 7-8 on my heart.
“Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment-to love one another-is the same message you heard before. Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.”
When I read that, I realized that when we LOVE, the darkness disappears. Love, Light, and God are the same. When we love, we bring God into the picture. And darkness CANNOT stay.
C’mon!!! That’s good stuff right there….
I kept reading and found more good stuff:
1 John 3:16
We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.
1 John 3:18
Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.
After I read these, the Lord said to me, “Real love is opening yourself up to be hurt, and loving through the hurt. And loving through the hurt is what heals your heart”
I have been chewing on that for over a year.
I have this picture in my head of Jesus dying on the cross. Go ahead….picture it yourself.
The Bible describes that as true love.
Jesus was hanging there. And by his choice, he was powerless over the situation. He just hung there. His arms were wide open. He was exposed.
And he was bleeding. (a lot, I’m sure)
I am continually learning that I can tell you all day long that I love you. It can even be coming from a place of sincerity when it is said. But if I’m not willing to hang out – wide open and exposed – with the possibility of *gasp* bleeding, then what kind of love am I professing?
Someone told me once that for my heart to be wide open, it has to be wide open. (profound, I know). She said that once you start to close yourself off to pain, then you are also closing yourself off to experiencing the fullness of love and joy.
That is an interesting and somewhat terrifying thought.
Love is patient and kind. It is not rude or boastful. It does not delight in wrongdoing. It delights when the truth wins out. It bears and endures all things. Love is always hopeful. It has faith. It lasts forever. (1 Cor. 13)
and sometimes, it just plain hurts.
Michael Hindes says that “Love is real love only when it’s released unconditionally and risks being unrequited. Love cannot demand a return on its investment. Love must offer the object of its passion the liberty to choose to return that love. If no liberty to choose, there is no love, just control and manipulation…”
I think that it is really easy to love someone when you love someone and things are good. It is a lot harder when it becomes a choice to love someone. It becomes harder still when the choice involves something painful or difficult. It becomes impossibly hard when love is rejected.
The World Race has taught me to love in ways I never knew before. I learned to love when I didn’t like. I learned to love when it was hard. I learned to pursue when I was not being pursued. I learned to love when I wanted to walk away. And I learned that when I loved from real love, then my actions showed it. I prayed for them, I sat with them, I invested in them… because I wanted to.
Right now, the decisions continue. I wonder what my life would look like if, instead of reacting to hurt by retreating or avoiding, I wrapped my towel around my waist and washed the feet of the other person. I mean, Jesus did it… Grace covers all, right? We say that… but what if it is actually true for others like it is true for us? And what if we are supposed to act like it? And what if acting like it is what actually heals our hearts?
whew.
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