is not for punks.
Not at all.
Me and God are working thru something right now that has left me pretty shaken. And pretty mad, if i'mma keep it real.
And that is due in large part to how I (and people around me) have always (or do currently) believe love should look.
Trust me. This is not that.
I've had a hard time lately. Because I look at other people and their relationships and love stories and all that and I really have wondered why God would choose this path for me. I love my guy. I really truly do. But our story is seriously one that is way more about Grace than it is about a Godly girl meeting a Godly guy and them building a heaven-sent life.
Don't get me wrong. I know that most people's situations aren't that neat and easy; i just know that most look NOTHING like ours. And I even know that some have a harder story than ours. No two loves look alike.
But i digress. That's not even my beef. My real beef is this: why do we think we are entitled to all this holiness and godliness in eachother,when most often we are not those things ourselves. We have all these expectations and all these requirements for a mate, when seriously what I'm learning is that when God sends that person to us, they are usually a very clear reflection not only of things in us that are good, but also of areas in our own hearts that seriously need some work.
Hard pill to swallow. Or maybe not. Maybe it 's just me; but if you've been here you know what I mean. Cuz this... this is out the box...
The last couple of days God's been doin' some stretchin in me and He's taking on the things I haven't dared to ask Him out loud. Like, you know, why would You ask me to endure this?! Haven't I accepted enough? Hurt enough? Suffered enough?Sacrificed enough? Isn't it time to see something besides not only the normal foolishness, but a BRAND-NEW LEVEL of foolishness?! Are you seriously tellin' me that You expect me to keep on doin' this?! REALLY GOD?! And yes. It's that serious. I'm so for real.
And in two mornings, God's hit me with two knockout punches (not to mention the subtle pokes all last week that maybe i'm being selfish and not tolerant enough. which, if you knew the half you would think is ludicrous. but i digress.. ) The first is that I'm too comfortable. The second is that I'm childish in my expectations. And then He gives me Word to back it up...
I've always been taught that relationships cannot succeed if they are only 50/50. Gotta be 100/100 in order to be successful. I submit that that statement is not entirely true. Because really. There is rarely going to be a time when there is 100% effort on BOTH parts at all times - because life happens and people go thru things. But there CAN be 100% COMMITMENT to stay and make it work on both parts, no matter who's goin thru what. Trust me. I'm livin' proof. As is my mom before me and my grandmoms before her.
ok. lemme explain. I was all in 1Corinthians this morning. Chapter 13. But i bypassed all the love stuff and headed on to verse 9. Where we get into speaking as a child and thinking as a child and becoming a man. So not sure what was God's point... Then He told me. As I read all that stuff beforehand, it dawned on me that all the stuff love is, is not qualified with love is... if. It all says 'love is...'
The statement in verse 9 is so powerful because love is not an 'if you do this, then I'll do that'. Love does all those things no MATTER what the other side does. If it doesn't, it's not God's kinda love. And if that isn't what we're givin' to eachother we're out of order. The reference to childishness is appropriate, because it is a childish mindset, a childish position to say that we are only going to accept eachother, persevere with eachother, stand by eachother, do all that stuff in the previous 8 verses, if the other part of our dynamic duo earns it.
Not only is it childish, it is also hypocritical. Because, last I checked, I have certainly not earned it, and God loves me exactly this way. So. All my whining. All my carryin-on, however justified i might be in feelin' some kinda way because he should know better than blah blah blah. All that is not in line with what God calls me to.
I've been childish in my attitudes and I've been wrong. And it has not served us well. Not at all.
And lest we forget the second knockout: comfort is trying to root itself in my spirit again as an idol. And please notice that I said 'again', which would bring along with it a sense of entitlement, which all stems from pride. All the things God has taken His precious time to uproot in my heart.
Satan is so sneaky. Because I would not have called any of the positions I've taken any of those names, certainly not when I've paid such a price to be treated well. But when it comes to it, I've expected him to do the growing first BEFORE I gave him the all-admission pass into my heart. Im so out of order. My recent craving of comfort, because I've been feelin' like I've paid my dues and I should be able to expect some 'more' at this point, has also not served us well. Not at all.
And I know this is the opposite of what we'd like to believe. I know it's the opposite of what we teach our kids. You dont give your heart until you know he'll treasure it, etc etc etc. And that's a great position in and of itself, so that we learn to guard our hearts and see what really is a person's character.
But what if God calls you to be Hosea? How exactly do you love Gomer and honor God in that love if you withhold your heart - a heart that God has never withheld from you (not even when it was certainly not to His benefit to give it)? What makes it ok for us to set standards for eachother that God has never set for us? If God calls him or her good enough, who are we to scoff at that? Who are we to thumb our noses? Who are we to judge those to whom God has given such a call?
Why would we say that God wouldn't call you to blah blah blah, or that He wouldn't do blah blah blah, when we have biblical evidence of it being absolutely something He would do?
And more to the point, how dare we believe such a call is beneath us? Cuz really, if anybody ever had a right to feel entitled to better, it's Christ. And that's not how he loved us.
If we're really striving for Christ like-ness, shouldn't we strive for it in all areas of life?
I know. Not at all a popular or easy position, because who doesn't want to be safe and protected and cherished. We all do. But Love is what ulitmately allows that to be real between humans. In and of ourselves, we all live out Hosea and Gomer's story to some degree or another. And it's not up to us to decide how much of that story is too much for it to be God.
Not at all.
We'd do well to learn to honor God's word in the way He calls us to, and to allow others the (judgement- free) room to do the same.
Not at all.
Me and God are working thru something right now that has left me pretty shaken. And pretty mad, if i'mma keep it real.
And that is due in large part to how I (and people around me) have always (or do currently) believe love should look.
Trust me. This is not that.
I've had a hard time lately. Because I look at other people and their relationships and love stories and all that and I really have wondered why God would choose this path for me. I love my guy. I really truly do. But our story is seriously one that is way more about Grace than it is about a Godly girl meeting a Godly guy and them building a heaven-sent life.
Don't get me wrong. I know that most people's situations aren't that neat and easy; i just know that most look NOTHING like ours. And I even know that some have a harder story than ours. No two loves look alike.
But i digress. That's not even my beef. My real beef is this: why do we think we are entitled to all this holiness and godliness in eachother,when most often we are not those things ourselves. We have all these expectations and all these requirements for a mate, when seriously what I'm learning is that when God sends that person to us, they are usually a very clear reflection not only of things in us that are good, but also of areas in our own hearts that seriously need some work.
Hard pill to swallow. Or maybe not. Maybe it 's just me; but if you've been here you know what I mean. Cuz this... this is out the box...
The last couple of days God's been doin' some stretchin in me and He's taking on the things I haven't dared to ask Him out loud. Like, you know, why would You ask me to endure this?! Haven't I accepted enough? Hurt enough? Suffered enough?Sacrificed enough? Isn't it time to see something besides not only the normal foolishness, but a BRAND-NEW LEVEL of foolishness?! Are you seriously tellin' me that You expect me to keep on doin' this?! REALLY GOD?! And yes. It's that serious. I'm so for real.
And in two mornings, God's hit me with two knockout punches (not to mention the subtle pokes all last week that maybe i'm being selfish and not tolerant enough. which, if you knew the half you would think is ludicrous. but i digress.. ) The first is that I'm too comfortable. The second is that I'm childish in my expectations. And then He gives me Word to back it up...
I've always been taught that relationships cannot succeed if they are only 50/50. Gotta be 100/100 in order to be successful. I submit that that statement is not entirely true. Because really. There is rarely going to be a time when there is 100% effort on BOTH parts at all times - because life happens and people go thru things. But there CAN be 100% COMMITMENT to stay and make it work on both parts, no matter who's goin thru what. Trust me. I'm livin' proof. As is my mom before me and my grandmoms before her.
ok. lemme explain. I was all in 1Corinthians this morning. Chapter 13. But i bypassed all the love stuff and headed on to verse 9. Where we get into speaking as a child and thinking as a child and becoming a man. So not sure what was God's point... Then He told me. As I read all that stuff beforehand, it dawned on me that all the stuff love is, is not qualified with love is... if. It all says 'love is...'
The statement in verse 9 is so powerful because love is not an 'if you do this, then I'll do that'. Love does all those things no MATTER what the other side does. If it doesn't, it's not God's kinda love. And if that isn't what we're givin' to eachother we're out of order. The reference to childishness is appropriate, because it is a childish mindset, a childish position to say that we are only going to accept eachother, persevere with eachother, stand by eachother, do all that stuff in the previous 8 verses, if the other part of our dynamic duo earns it.
Not only is it childish, it is also hypocritical. Because, last I checked, I have certainly not earned it, and God loves me exactly this way. So. All my whining. All my carryin-on, however justified i might be in feelin' some kinda way because he should know better than blah blah blah. All that is not in line with what God calls me to.
I've been childish in my attitudes and I've been wrong. And it has not served us well. Not at all.
And lest we forget the second knockout: comfort is trying to root itself in my spirit again as an idol. And please notice that I said 'again', which would bring along with it a sense of entitlement, which all stems from pride. All the things God has taken His precious time to uproot in my heart.
Satan is so sneaky. Because I would not have called any of the positions I've taken any of those names, certainly not when I've paid such a price to be treated well. But when it comes to it, I've expected him to do the growing first BEFORE I gave him the all-admission pass into my heart. Im so out of order. My recent craving of comfort, because I've been feelin' like I've paid my dues and I should be able to expect some 'more' at this point, has also not served us well. Not at all.
And I know this is the opposite of what we'd like to believe. I know it's the opposite of what we teach our kids. You dont give your heart until you know he'll treasure it, etc etc etc. And that's a great position in and of itself, so that we learn to guard our hearts and see what really is a person's character.
But what if God calls you to be Hosea? How exactly do you love Gomer and honor God in that love if you withhold your heart - a heart that God has never withheld from you (not even when it was certainly not to His benefit to give it)? What makes it ok for us to set standards for eachother that God has never set for us? If God calls him or her good enough, who are we to scoff at that? Who are we to thumb our noses? Who are we to judge those to whom God has given such a call?
Why would we say that God wouldn't call you to blah blah blah, or that He wouldn't do blah blah blah, when we have biblical evidence of it being absolutely something He would do?
And more to the point, how dare we believe such a call is beneath us? Cuz really, if anybody ever had a right to feel entitled to better, it's Christ. And that's not how he loved us.
If we're really striving for Christ like-ness, shouldn't we strive for it in all areas of life?
I know. Not at all a popular or easy position, because who doesn't want to be safe and protected and cherished. We all do. But Love is what ulitmately allows that to be real between humans. In and of ourselves, we all live out Hosea and Gomer's story to some degree or another. And it's not up to us to decide how much of that story is too much for it to be God.
Not at all.
We'd do well to learn to honor God's word in the way He calls us to, and to allow others the (judgement- free) room to do the same.
ro
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