Majority of the day I've gone back and forth about writing this post. And I'm not sure why.
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I knew church was going to be amazing this morning. My spirit was just telling me to prepare myself. We weren't even done with worship and I was already in tears. I heard these words spoken over the music, "No matter what, God loves you. When you are at your absolute worst that is when He loves you the most. People walk away, doors close, you lose a job, everything seems like it's falling apart, but God is standing there with His arms wide open just waiting to wrap them around you..." I knew this service was about to be something else.
And I was right.
Pretty positive I cried the entire time.
And, of course, the topic was love and relationships. But not just your normal topic on it...it was different.
Automatically words were just sticking out and causing the tears to fall harder.
Clearly, we can't give what we haven't received. Without receiving God's love we can't love others correctly. In order to love others correctly, and to be a light in this love broken world, we have to go back to the origin of love...and that's God.
You see, we get access to an unfailing and uncommon love in this crazy broken world. We need that in order to love others in this broken world. A world that looks at relationships as a joke. Instead of relationships we are having "situationships"...it is so dang sad.
We go from being friends to being something more for many many months but never actually committing to that other person. We have people who care and work for a relationship while the other person is still swiping away and seeing the other as an option. People who just keep a person around because it's convenient. Building more and more walls around their heart as each day passes. Becoming more and more cold and turned away from genuine people. It's a sad story. And as long as that sad story continues on, situationships are going to stick around.
But yet we go around retweeting 1 Corinthians 13 and quotes about what we deserve and what kind of love to stay away from..and its BOGUS. It's so bogus and stupid. Because if we're actually believing the 1 Corinthians 13 tweet that we are retweeting....we would be acting a whole lot different than how we are acting.
Let me break this down:
"Love is patient, love is kind, It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."
Agape love never fails. Unconditional, unfailing, never ending, always there no matter what, kinda love never fails. This "love" we portray today isn't even close to that.
People walking away without saying a word, people going behind their "significant" other's back and cheating on them with someone else, people continually returning to toxic ex's because they are brainwashed that they can't do any better than that, people who feel so unworthy of having someone who actually cares about them...so many different scenarios. IT IS SO SAD. I am over this worldly love and the actions that come with it.
Pastor Dino said something today that hit me really hard. He said " It's later than we think it is," You guys, we don't have much time with the ones we care about left. We are left wishing for one more day, one more hug, one more chance to tell them how much we care about them. It's heartbreaking really. Life can change in the blink of an eye. Make sure they know how your heart feels about them.
If we don't express the love, someone else will express it to those that are important to us.
Is that really what we want?
Take a moment.
Think about the people in your life. Think about the person who has been there for you day in and day out. The person and people who have put up with your moods, the people who rejoice with you when you're happy, and they are sad when you are sad. Think about them. Think about their smile and how their face looks when they are talking about something that really makes them happy. Think about their laugh. Look and see how they treat others. Think about their heart. Think about the last time you hugged them. Think about the last time you were in this person's presence...
now, do you really want someone else to express care and love to them because you didn't? Does this person truly know that you care? And I am speaking for myself here too, you guys. There's people in my life that I don't express how much I truly do care and love them. We all fall short.
We all really do fall short. And that is okay as long as we know how to restart that. How to show God's love and to love how were are suppose to. The uncommon love of today.
So, Pastor D gave us five ways to show this love:
say it
write it
give it
forgive it
live it
Pretty sure that say it and write/text it is where the flood gates opened. Even the give it.
I am just so sad that there is this amazing love out there that gives us the ability to love others the way God has intended for us to love, and yet we choose the world's way. We never ever truly heal, we never ever truly love. We give up. We stop when things get hard or opinions are voiced. We are afraid of what people will think and say. But yet, we still choose the world's way of loving others.
I don't know about you guys, but I am making a promise to myself and a commitment to God to love in a way that is only available when we accept and receive God's uncommon love.
Pastor D left us with a quote that I've always heard but never truly thought about in depth, until today. I hope it maybe strikes something in you.
"Sometimes, you will never know the value of something, until it becomes a memory." -Dr. Seuss
If you'd like to watch this message, here is the link:
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