Ohmygosh.
I have been in turns avoiding social media, and then drowning myself in it.
And what I am seeing most is the impersonality of the internet breaking down relationships.
People are ignoring the people in their house in an attempt to drown out whatever struggles they are trying to escape from. I am just as guilty of this as you are, I promise.
I’m seeing people who profess to love Jesus refuse to practice love, grace and kindness. I am guilty of this one as well.
I’m seeing people attempting to reach out for some kind of human contact getting roasted and judged for needing help.
And it all breaks my heart.
I am on Christian and non-Christian pages alike, and again, the ones with the least grace are the ones who live covered in it by the Jesus they proclaim to know.
Jesus said so many times in the scriptures that we are NEW in Christ. That HIS BLOOD is what is saving us. That he knew we would fail, and we would be imperfect, but HIS LOVE knows no bounds.
So why are we putting so many boundaries on the love we are called to share with others? And how do we stop?!?
I’m not at all saying I’m perfect. All of my most creative words come out every single time I get behind the wheel and someone does something I don’t agree with. I judge too. I get it. Our flesh is weak, and our minds are inundated with this fallen world and all that is going on in it.
We have (in my generation) never faced times such as these. However, there is nothing new on this earth. Not a single thing.
There has been deception since the beginning. There has been crime. Hatred. Famine. Disease. Hopelessness. All throughout the bible, we can read about how these things were overcome.
And not a single one of these things was overcome by judging others. Or by diminishing someone else’s story so that we can feel better about our own. All of these circumstances were only overcome by turning to God.
This isn’t at all what I sat down to write today. I’ve actually been avoiding writing. It doesn’t seem to matter what side of the fence you’re on, or how you got there, you’re wrong. So why would I continue to write just to be told I’m wrong.
Well, I stopped fighting the Holy Spirit on it today. That’s really all that’s changed. I don’t want to write. I don’t want to be judged. I don’t want to fight.
But maybe, just maybe, if I hide in my little corner, I’m dropping the ball. Perhaps part of my story is sharing. Of opening myself up so that I can stand not in my own strength, but in His. Because that’s all I really have. Whatever gifts He has blessed me with.
His strength.
But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.
2 Corinthians 12
His grace.
For you are said by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift…
Ephesians 2
His unending love.
But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
His forgiveness.
And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave Christ in you.
Ephesians 4:32
Without all of these, and the willingness to pass them on, I have and am nothing.
If I speak human or angelic languages but do not have love, I am a sounding gong to a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body in order to boost, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13
Without God’s love (the only love that can fill us to overflowing), we can’t share it. The love that we need is His and His alone. And when we are searching for and living in that relationship, that love will flow out of us.
So today, can we all examine our hearts?
Can we go back to reading the bible and turn off the media? We weren’t getting the answers from them anyways.
Can we let HIM repair our hearts so that what spills out is what He’s filled us up with?
Can we run to Jesus with our needs, rather than exist to be noticed by people? People who are just as broken as we are, who need to hear our story of redemption, so that they can be redeemed too.
I’m not saying not to share our lives. Quite the opposite. I’m asking that we share our lives in the deepest way possible. Authentically, with honesty and rawness. So that the people we are speaking into, and who are speaking into us, aren’t the faceless masses, but those around us who deserve our best.
I know this is a long post. I hate reading long posts. I want my spirit to be filled quick and easy. I want to feel inspired, but not challenged. And maybe that’s part of the problem.
Heavenly Father, I thank you. My heart is unsettled, but I know that you are right beside me. I know that you have a plan, and that it is for good, because that is who you are. I thank you that I can know you. I have been blessed by you, and forgiven. I pray today that you would break open my heart, so that your love would flow out. That you would put your hand over my mouth in times of judgements and unforgiveness. That you would use me as the Child of God that I am. And that you would reawaken in me a desire for a relationship with you. In faith I pray, Amen.
Soul to Sole Living 