You know those nights when you have a thousand and one thoughts racing through your mind?
There is so much you want to share, so much you want to say?
That seems to be the story of my life! I want to share so much with you, I have about 9 drafts and none are finished. Such a shame, for when I return to them, the muse that had guided me, by then, has abandoned me.
Last night, however, I grabbed my phone and jotted down ramblings. Well, more like very, very early this morning.
And in order to ensure these nuggets get shared and not abandoned in the cemetery of drafts, I am sharing with minimal tweaking.
Why?
Time.
I hope that these ramblings offer some value 😉
Love.
God IS love.
How do we define it? This Love?
Is it not the wanting the best for the other person?
Not the selfish type of love. What I want, what I desire.
And yet love is used to justify immorality. Behaviour we know is wrong. Actions that are selfishness, pure and simple.
How do I know? How dare I judge?!
I know because I am guilty of it too. I have been one of the most selfish, sinful persons you will ever come across.
I have left devastation in my path. Many innocent victims. People that I have claimed to love hurt, scarred for life. All for what? Love.
I too have used Love to justify sin. And no matter how we spin it, how much we try to justify it, love does not leave a wake of destruction.
For you can be quite certain that nobody who indulges in sexual immorality or impurity or greed — which is worshipping a false god — can inherit the kingdom of God.
Do not let anyone deceive you with empty arguments: it is such behaviour that draws down God’s retribution on those who rebel against him.
~ Ephesians 5:5 (New Jerusalem Bible)
It feels good. Being caught up in the passion of it all. The arousal. The desire. We truly believe to be in love. We justify anything and everything for love.
One of my favourite:
“How can it be wrong when it feels so right?”
Simple, because we are lead astray. We are tempted. We are beguiled. We are told that we know better than them.
“Who are they to judge? They have never known love like ours! It’s us against the world!”
And truly, what can be more romantic than that?! Us against the world!
If only we knew that many, I dare say most, have felt and believed the same exact thing.
Mood kill, huh…
So if my passions are not love, supposedly – for I know all too well that when we are in the midst of it all, no one knows, No One – then what is love like?
True Love. The Love we should all aspire to – though many of us are deprived of, we have never truly seen, much less believe – is a Sacrificial Love.
True love is the laying down ones life for the other. For another. The wanting what is best for them, even if it means not us.
Love is not selfish…
Love is kind…Love is…let me share with you the perfect words:
Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited, it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offence or store up grievances.
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes.
Love never comes to an end.
~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (New Jerusalem Bible)
Love is not lust.
L – looking
U – unto
S – self
T – taking
I heard this acronym in a Christopher West talk and I found that it stuck. Look, I am even sharing it with you!
If you are using the other person for self-satisfaction, it’s not love.
If you are taking from them to complete your lacking, that is not love.
If you are putting your desires before their eternal salvation, sorry, not love.
Happiness is fleeting. This feeling of lust is fleeting. It will pass. It will change. The lust will change. It will not be enough. Addiction dictates that it is never enough. Being enslaved to feelings is not love. Love is freeing, liberating. Love, True Love, wants for us to gain Eternal Salvation. It leads us to it.
Salvation? Man in the sky? What?!?! How can that imaginary man in the sky and the book you people use to limit us, bind us, enslave us with rules have anything about love? It’s all prejudicial, fantasy, ridiculous.
I have heard and read all of these statements and so many more…but I have news for you…
God IS real.
He chose to become man. Not because He needed to understand us, to get to know our humanity, to see what we are like, the Triune God created us!He became man in order that we could believe and realize that He does understand US! He lived like us. He was a helpless and vulnerable babe, like us. He submitted to the will of His Mom and Foster Father, like so many of us. He did as He was told. He suffered betrayal, hatred, criticism, lies, torture, pain, and death…for us.
To reunite us to Himself.
He is Love.
He is perfect.
Perfect is hard to wrap our mind around.
When we are little, many of us believe our parents are perfect. But as we grow we see they’re flawed.
Heroes we discover are flawed.
That person we love, the one we were, or maybe are, blinded by love for, flawed.
Every human person we meet, flawed.
Thus, perfection is really abstract. A mystery.
He is perfect. A mystery, for He is not like us, and yet we are like Him!
We are created in His image.
How?
We can choose to love.
We are a soul with a body.
We can have eternal life.
More to come…
From The Pews 
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