Love Conquers...

Twenty six years on this earth is not a long time.  It's not even fractionally significant in God's divine time, yet He has offered so much grace and mercy to me already.  The reality is that God's love is so unfathomable to us because of how imperfectly we love.  "Love conquers all" the Bible declares yet, in our lives, when love stings we run away from it, shun it, curse it, as if it's our job to pay love back for the very shortcomings that disappoint.  But what if God did that to us?

Imagine then that the lustful thoughts you had that Tuesday night were held against you the next day, right away? That the lie you told to your family to keep them together was revealed to them? Imagine that all your dirt from your life, the things that will lead people to judge you was revealed in the sky, a celestial hd experience for the world to see narrated sarcastically and condescendingly by the Master on High. Now imagine that this happened all in the comfort of your living room with nobody knowing but you and God, and that after the dirt was shown to you, after the tears of regret and remorse stained your cheeks, God smiles, like only God can smile, ejects the DVD, cracks it, and tosses it into the abyss.

Now replace God with a person.

Not very likely.  See we live our lives full of insecurities, walls, cultural barriers and emotional safe-havens to keep from experiencing pain. We believe that the best parts of our lives will be painless and joyful and positive. What this creates is a false seeking of euphoric experiences, and a cursing and damning of trying times and "transition".  We forget to look at the beauty in ALL things, not just the obvious like childbirth or vacations abroad. We neglect to find beauty in crying for someone who we lost, the beauty that someone, if even for a moment, affected our lives in such a positive way that their absence will forever be sorely missed.  We refuse to believe that living situations that uproot our comfort and keeps us on pins and needles, couches and floors, fans and space heaters, are beautiful especially because when eventually that is replaced with love and warmth, central air and heating, serta perfect beds and sleep numbers we will be eternally grateful.

We also forget to see the Beauty in that Christ, our friend, will never do those hurtful things that others do that eventually jeopardizes the integrity of our relationship with them.

I guess the remorse and pain of this post may or may not be evident.  But heres the bottom line, my real talk if you will.  Love can conquer all, and imperfection can be beautiful. Mistakes can make or break moments, but it shouldn't make or break your life. Judgment is up to the almighty God, and Love is done better by no other than God. So, if we are to find truth in seeking the Divine, we must learn to forgive, and not cheesy I forgive you forgive but you will forever be burned with the fire of my contemptuous stares for the rest of your days. Rather, forgiveness like you hurt me, but I love you enough to try and move forward, even if it's without you for a bit or forever.  My prayer is that those who I've cried for will find a way to forgive my neglect, my imperfection, my fallible nature, and my lack of humility and learn to love me again.  For some it's too late, they are in eternal rest, and I can never know if they had peace with me. For others, it's a phone call, an email, a text, a hug, a kiss, a look. For others it's a distant thought that's not to realistic.  Yet I'm hopeful all the more, that the spirit of God can help His people learn to allow love to abide and grace to abound...

Ultimately, forgivness is for us.  When we choose to forgive, we free ourselves from the bondage of revenge, backbiting, gossiping and all the by-products of a negative experience at the hands of another human being.  There is freedom in love and bondage in all other things.  What God calls freedom and what the world calls freedom is inherently different...but i'll leave that for another post...