God is Love. It's such a huge statement and it's a lot harder to grasp and comprehend then I think a lot of people would admit. Heather Zempel spoke on the love of God to close out the God Anthology series at NCC. Heather said we have a false and incomplete understand of God is love, and I'd agree with that statement.
I struggle with the love of God. And if I'm honest, I struggle with it because I don't understand it. I've seen it shown to me in my life by God and from others. I've been overwhelmed by God's sacrifice and by His goodness to the point of tears because I realize I have nothing to say or offer that can match God's love for me. I hope that I've been able to show the love of God to at least one person around me.
One of the most impacting statements from this weekend that I've been thinking about is this: God is love does not mean God is nice. It's a distinction I don't make naturally. Because it's easy to say if you love someone you're nice to them. Or is that just me?
But it's not true. We aren't always nice to the people we love. And the reason we're not always nice is because we love them. We don't let the people we care about run around and make terrible choices. No, we interfere and at the risk of being the bad guy, try and stop being from doing harm to them because we love them and don't want to see them get hurt long term.
I wrote about people letting us down and how we need to respond in love and not give up on people. Part of acting in love is helping those see their mistake and showing tough love or rebuking what they've done. It's not coming alongside and just saying its okay buddy. Because there's no real love in that.
I think a verse that stood out to me most is one I've heard a billion times but struck me in a new way this weekend.
"Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance" ~ 1 Corinthians 13-7.
I'm a failure. There have been countless times when I've just faced the reality that I disappoint God all the time. I disappoint those around me constantly too. And no matter what good I do and no matter how nice I am or generous, or compassionate, or anything, there are still black marks in my life. There are still things I will never be proud of having done. There will probably be something that happens or something I say this week that I won't be proud of. Because I'm a failure and if I were God, I would have thrown me to the curb years ago.
But love never gives up and if God is love then God never gives up and thank goodness for that. God never gives up on me, never loses faith in me, is always hopeful, and endures through every time I disappoint him, and he's still willing to forgive me and accept me as his son.
I don't have a pretty way of tying this in a bow and making it a neat blog post with a point that gets you thinking. Because the post is me thinking out loud and my thoughts don't make sense or have an answer and they aren't wrapped in a bow. In fact if I'm using the wrapping analogy, my thoughts are wrapped like a Christmas present I have personally wrapped. Meaning they're messy and not pretty.
Love is the foundation of God's character. God is love. I will never fully understand the love of God and I'm okay with that. My hope is that I can show God's love to those around me better and better with each passing day.
2 comments:
Kinda reminds of how the people closest to you are the ones who can hurt you the most.
So...if you feel like God is hurting you, does that mean you're really close to Him?
Ok, enough of me smart-alec-ing around.
You've actually given me a lot to think about through all your thinking out loud-ness.
He really is the ultimate Father, because, like you said, He never gives up on us, and loves us so much to give us His very best, even when we're unsure of it, or hurt by it.
If that made sense.
I didn't get around to posting last week about jealousy but Pastor Mark did talk about how sometimes the bad things are the best things. Another good sermon.
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