lovin' for real

Mother Theresa said, “Intense love does not measure – it just gives!” I think this really hard to comprehend and yet I am faced with situations every day that call me to choose to love like this – to love like Christ. I know God doesn’t give us spankings, but He sure does give us a good thump or two once in awhile with His word – and depending on our stubbornness we may get a little boot in the rump too. This is important because I find it necessary to be constantly reminded just how imperfect I really am, and how blessed I am to bare the mark of God’s grace upon my heart.

I think one of the hardest things about desiring to love intensely, without measuring is that we want to protect it, to guide it, to make sure it gets where it is supposed to be going without any bumps and bruises along the way, when in reality – I am an imperfect person and therefore, my love is not perfect love. Christ’s love is though – and “perfect love casts out all fear”. I relate this thought to yet another statement I heard the other day, “Don’t love cautiously. Love extravagantly!” Wow!

One of the hardest things for me to swallow lately has been realizing that I have a whole lot of people in my life who do not necessarily “measure” up in loving me – and that hurts, a lot actually. Some people do a real crummy job loving on those they care most about. I relate this thought to something I learned in PLC. Prez often reminded us, “If you love greatly – you can hurt greatly”. This reminder has been stamped on my heart – and even though I understand the consequences of loving greatly, my heart has also come to understand that aching greatly is not always fun, but it is remarkably beautiful!

In Family Life Ministry last semester Pastor Elliott astounded me week after week with facts and statistics about the makeup and general wellbeing of family in our world today. To be rather blunt, “family these days ain’t all it’s cracked up to be” and in many cases, it just plain ol’ stinks. I realized the need for me to really LOVE my CITs because a lot of them do not see nor receive Christ-like love through their “families”.

Yesterday my teens said, “Miss Christy, why are you so patient with us? If I were you, I would be screaming my head off at us.” I realized I do not need to yell or scream at these teens, even though they do a pretty crummy job of listening to anything and everything I say or ask of them. My perception is pretty one-sided because I only see them during the day, and perhaps these kids already have enough people to yell at them in their lives. The principle involved here was one of patience, yes, but underneath, I also think I am learning to really love. I am far from perfect in this, but I have freedom in expressing myself so as not to hurt or wound those I am expressing myself toward.

Dr. Maurice Watson, the senior pastor at the Beulahland Bible Church I have begun attending said something to the effect of this in his sermon on Sunday concerning the words we speak, “Listen child of God, the English language is broad enough for you to express yourself - even when you’re angry, without any need for vulgarity or insult to enter the mix”. My reaction to this is simply shouting “TRUTH!” just like we do in Personal Evangelism with Mike MacNeil when someone accepts Christ in their lives, “TRUTH!”