The Secret of Life
It doesn't matter in the end. Whether friendship or love is reciprocated. Both are based on God's love to man - a model of it. We are to love unconditionally.
It took a lot for me to let go. Still does. I'm still letting go. Constantly. And fighting it. But walking away from the bus, I couldn't help but smile. I've wondered so often about my friend (the only one I really have in this area in Britain) as our relationship has really gone up and down. From stuff he says sometimes, I wonder if he even counts me as a friend at all.
In the end, it doesn't matter. It's hard when we extend our friendship, or give our love, and don't have it returned. Indeed, most times the reaction is to hurt, retreat and close down on the pain until it's faded or gone. The world teaches that if you get hurt repeatedly, in the end, love and friendship dies.
So it does.
Unless you're loving with Christ's love. When He fills you with His love to love out, when that love is in every area of your life where you love out - family, friends, spouse, even enemies - love never fails.
Christ loved us, when we hated Him. He died for us when we crucified Him. The purest thing in creation loved the filthiest - and by the majority, it was never returned.
We invert love. If it hurts us or doesn't give us anything of profit, we let go. We abuse the person who didn't return it, or ignore them.
Where's selfless love today? In Christ. In surrender. In letting go to be filled of His power to love.
Surrender. We're terrified of letting things go. As a fatherless young woman, one of my deepest, most painful and wanted desires was to be claimed, sheltered, defended. I knew God was my Defender, but I wanted someone who would be a visible, nameable, tangible presence to defend me and stand between me and other guys who pursued me wrongly. It took a long while, but eventually God softened my heart and I prayed, asking Him to make me willing to be willing to surrender this desire to Him. Then to be willing to surrender it. Then I asked Him to take it away. It's funny, when we're willing and trusting and knowing He knows the best, how easily the burden falls away once we ask. But He'll not take it if we aren't willing.
He took it. But weeks later, even maybe a month or two, He gave it back to me in a different, new and unexpected way. Because I'd let go on even trying to shield myself, but prayed for Him to be my Defender - something He is STILL doing, still in that place in my life. Which is why I think He gave it back. When He was in first place. It's not that God withholds good gifts from His children. It's that He asks to be in first place, at the head of them; not the desire for them. So for Him to give it back like this is... *laughs and shakes head in awe* God is so amazing. So, so awesome. And so GOOD.
It comes down to trusting Him, in the end. Trust. *grins again* The first thing God taught me after He brought me back from backsliding was how to love. He kept one friend in the most sensitive - and only sensitive - part of my life, who was then like a thorn in it because he wouldn't leave me (I was trying to kick him out), and taught me to love once again. God didn't just show me how to love - I saw His character and His love to mankind and me personally in hundreds of ways, as He developed the love and opened it to enclose others. Now He's teaching me trust - which is part of being able to surrender.
The way He's teaching me to trust is so strange and so funny at the same time! *smiles* I don't trust easily, and He's teaching me to trust again through someone who was at one time the only person I trusted, and who accidentally broke it. ...you can imagine how interesting a battle this is. :D
He's teaching me to trust this person again...to trust Him to trust this person, and through learning to trust this person, I'm learning how to develop a very real trust for Him!
*laughs again* Only God could orchestrate something like this. And only God could carry it out to the finer details.
I think faith and hope is next on the schedule. I'm not sure how He's going to teach those, but I can't help but be shakily excited! And scared.
But what need I fear of the ways He will lead me? Perfect love casts out fear. God is perfect, God is love, and God is perfect love. God in us casts out fear. :)
Trust Him!
In Christ,
~Mademoiselle Siân~
It took a lot for me to let go. Still does. I'm still letting go. Constantly. And fighting it. But walking away from the bus, I couldn't help but smile. I've wondered so often about my friend (the only one I really have in this area in Britain) as our relationship has really gone up and down. From stuff he says sometimes, I wonder if he even counts me as a friend at all.
In the end, it doesn't matter. It's hard when we extend our friendship, or give our love, and don't have it returned. Indeed, most times the reaction is to hurt, retreat and close down on the pain until it's faded or gone. The world teaches that if you get hurt repeatedly, in the end, love and friendship dies.
So it does.
Unless you're loving with Christ's love. When He fills you with His love to love out, when that love is in every area of your life where you love out - family, friends, spouse, even enemies - love never fails.
Christ loved us, when we hated Him. He died for us when we crucified Him. The purest thing in creation loved the filthiest - and by the majority, it was never returned.
We invert love. If it hurts us or doesn't give us anything of profit, we let go. We abuse the person who didn't return it, or ignore them.
Where's selfless love today? In Christ. In surrender. In letting go to be filled of His power to love.
Surrender. We're terrified of letting things go. As a fatherless young woman, one of my deepest, most painful and wanted desires was to be claimed, sheltered, defended. I knew God was my Defender, but I wanted someone who would be a visible, nameable, tangible presence to defend me and stand between me and other guys who pursued me wrongly. It took a long while, but eventually God softened my heart and I prayed, asking Him to make me willing to be willing to surrender this desire to Him. Then to be willing to surrender it. Then I asked Him to take it away. It's funny, when we're willing and trusting and knowing He knows the best, how easily the burden falls away once we ask. But He'll not take it if we aren't willing.
He took it. But weeks later, even maybe a month or two, He gave it back to me in a different, new and unexpected way. Because I'd let go on even trying to shield myself, but prayed for Him to be my Defender - something He is STILL doing, still in that place in my life. Which is why I think He gave it back. When He was in first place. It's not that God withholds good gifts from His children. It's that He asks to be in first place, at the head of them; not the desire for them. So for Him to give it back like this is... *laughs and shakes head in awe* God is so amazing. So, so awesome. And so GOOD.
It comes down to trusting Him, in the end. Trust. *grins again* The first thing God taught me after He brought me back from backsliding was how to love. He kept one friend in the most sensitive - and only sensitive - part of my life, who was then like a thorn in it because he wouldn't leave me (I was trying to kick him out), and taught me to love once again. God didn't just show me how to love - I saw His character and His love to mankind and me personally in hundreds of ways, as He developed the love and opened it to enclose others. Now He's teaching me trust - which is part of being able to surrender.
The way He's teaching me to trust is so strange and so funny at the same time! *smiles* I don't trust easily, and He's teaching me to trust again through someone who was at one time the only person I trusted, and who accidentally broke it. ...you can imagine how interesting a battle this is. :D
He's teaching me to trust this person again...to trust Him to trust this person, and through learning to trust this person, I'm learning how to develop a very real trust for Him!
*laughs again* Only God could orchestrate something like this. And only God could carry it out to the finer details.
I think faith and hope is next on the schedule. I'm not sure how He's going to teach those, but I can't help but be shakily excited! And scared.
But what need I fear of the ways He will lead me? Perfect love casts out fear. God is perfect, God is love, and God is perfect love. God in us casts out fear. :)
Trust Him!
In Christ,
~Mademoiselle Siân~
Thank you for writing this. <3
ReplyDelete*seconds Emily* :)
ReplyDelete...Hits close to home...much needed. Thank you.
ReplyDelete<3 Pip
I third Emily...
ReplyDeleteI want to love like that, to trust in Him unconditionally. Trust is what He is teaching me this year. It has been a theme. A good theme.
~Dri