This blog has been in the works since month 8 and it’s special to my heart. I hope you enjoy.
The biggest thing that stands out for me over the course of these 11 months is love. In the words of Switchfoot, Love is the hardest artI I love to love those around me, but it is one of the hardest things. And it’s is the #1 thing I get recognized for doing exceptionally well. I’m always thinking of ways I can love those around me better, and that’s all great, until I stop doing it unto the Lord. In John 13:34-35 it says,
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” The love you receive from the Father should spill out to everyone around you without you even noticing!
Loving those around me out of the wrong heart posture can get messy. Or, it can be something so beautiful, just as the Father intended it to be. This might sound super hippy of me, but it all comes back to love! If you’re not able to do something in love, or say something in love, then it’s just a bunch of unnecessary hostility. My top love language is acts of service. Not only do I love to receive it, but I love giving it away. Before I provide an act of service, I check my heart. Something I learned from Eric was to ask myself, “why am I doing it?” What’s my heart behind it. So I ask myself why I want to do what I’m going to do. Well, it brings me life, and I know it’ll make that person happy. I don’t do it to be recognized or to get praised for. In fact I try to do it without them knowing it’s from me, because that can get to anyone’s head, the repetition of approval and affirmation. I don’t need to be affirmed, because I’ve already been affirmed by the Father. So, I don’t do it to get something back in return, just pure satisfaction of helping someone, or providing them with joy if they’ve had a hard day; lightening the load off of them.
Something to go along with that that I want to encourage you with is to pin point the individual in your life who you may not be the happiest with or maybe just don’t like at the moment. We should be serving them above and beyond; killing them with kindness, not expecting anything in return. In Matthew? ?5:38-42? ?it says,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”
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I love what Frederick Buechner writes in The Magnificent Defeat:
“It’s easy to love those who are suffering, the poor, the cripple, the unlovely. That’s called compassion. It’s hard to love those who succeed when we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice. Love for the enemy—love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens and inflicts pain. The tortured’s love for the torturer. This is God’s love. It conquers the world.”
To love and forgive, to confront someone who has hurt you even when you’re not in the wrong instead of waiting for them. That’s Christ’s love. To care more about the person rather than the friendship.
