To Love and Be Loved.

"In one way or another everything we do is tied to this unfolding story of love between us and God. How does God love? He chooses, he pursues, he resucues, he woos, he protects, and he lavishes."

1 John 4:7-11 talks about how important love is in our lives because love is the nature of God. We cannot serve God and be considered one of his own if we do not love. We are directed to love God, but also to take the love he has shown us and love one another. Its amazing to me sometimes how we sit in church and told that we are all self-centered and selfish because of the society we live in. How we have been tempted and shaped by our self-centered society, but in if we really look at it is this really true? Do we really live our lives in such a selfish way?

One of the things I have noticed as I have gone about my own life and as I have been part of others' lives is that rarely do we allow ourselves to be loved. Many times we have no problem showing others love; looking past their mistakes and seeing the precious being that God created and loves. Love is the root of our being. We were created for and out of love. Our purpose is to love God and to love others. God created the heaves and the earth to be a visible expression of his glory. Everything created to express preaise, but more than that he wanted the love and relationship that came with humans and their praise. God created the earth as a place where we could fulfill that role. He then created us with that same innate desire to be part of a relationship where we give and receive love. Where we can be ourselves and be loved for that. We were created in his own image to have that person, intimate, loving relationship with God for eternity. He gave us free will so that we could choose to worship him out of faith, love, loyalty, and gratitude rather than out of guilt, force, and obligation. He gave us the choice to love him with a pure love. With a love that stems from the love he has for us. A love that provides freedom. A love that broke sin's hold on us through the sacrifice of Christ.

This is something that can only be recieved through free will. God holds it in his hands for us to take. He won't make us take it from him. He allows us to choose. Here is where I don't see the entirety of the self-centeredness that so many preachers and religious gurus claim this society, both Christian and secular, hold. If you were to ask many people if they truly believed they were capable of being loved; that someone should or could love them I'm betting that a large percentage of them would to tell you know. That even though they may look past the mistakes of others and love them for who they are, they don't think anyone should do that for them. Its so sad. A generation filled with young women who don't believe that they deserve true love because of mistakes they made so they settle with the cheap shallow love that comes attached to lust and self gratification. A generation of young men who are tempted every day and told that they are terrible sinners when they do fall into the temptation. Told that they are not real men if they allow the idea of love become a need of theirs. A generation of children, teens, young adults, parents, and grandparents who doubt their own self worth and refuse to accept the fullness of the love given to them by other people and by God.

A friend once told me that you cannot give what you do not have. One day the expectations to be loved that you hold for yourself are going to fall onto someone else whether you mean for it to or not. It becomes a quickly reproducing problem that gets out of hand very fast. Its time that we allow God to love us the way he created us to be loved. Fully and purely. Its time that we accept that love so that we can share it with others. We need to allow those that God has placed in our lives to love us to truly love us. To let them show us the care and compassion that God has given to them to share as he has with you.

I pray that the heart of whoever reads this sees their worth. That whatever has haunted them from their past would take its place behind them and move out of the way between them and the love that God has for them. I thank you Lord for the grace and love that you gave us. The undeserving favor that was granted to us through your son and his wonderful sacrifice. Thank you so much!
~Amen