There are no accidents and no coincidences with God. A
friend of mine calls them Godincidences, and that’s what they are.
Everything is connected and everyone has a purpose. Even the things we look at
as mistakes in our lives can be used for the highest good of ourselves and
others if we allow God to work in and through us. It was no accident that I
thought of that line of that poem this morning, and no coincidence that the
note at the bottom read “The Passionate Shepherd to his love.” Jesus is The
Shepherd, and He is passionate for every one of us, passionate – not just cares
about us, but is passionate. The only thing that would have sent Him to the Cross
is a passionate love. There are people who I say I love, but would I
inconvenience myself for them - I can't even imagine going to the Cross, but would I even inconvenience myself a little bit for them? Maybe not. I‘d like to say I would “sacrifice my
life for them,” because I’d like to say I was that great a person, but when
faced with the reality of what that means, would I? John 15:13 says, “Greater love hath no man than this, that he would lay
down his life for his friends.” Do I know how to love like that? The only way
that I can know how to love like that is if I know that love in my own life, and even then I don't know how far I would go on my own strength. I think about Jesus walking to the Cross after hours of torture and beatings. He was both fully man and fully God, which means that He felt the full pain that we would feel as humans, and also had the power to call the whole thing off at any point along that road. But He just kept right on going, and He did it because of His great love. I don't even know what it is to love like that, and until I understood His love, I had never known a love like that before.
We use the words love and passion all the time, but do we
know what they really mean? For myself, I never knew what love really was until
I was born again. 1 Corinthians 13 is the familiar list of what love is:
patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast, does not dishonor others, is not
self seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not
delight in evil, rejoices in the truth, always protects, always trusts, always
hopes, always perseveres. The list ends with these beautiful words, “Love never
fails.” Do I know how to love like that?
When we learn how to love like that, we can know the true power
of love because a love like that never fails. When I read that list I have to
think back to how many times I have said I have forgiven someone, but I still
remember what they did – but love keeps no record of wrongs, so I am not truly
loving if I keep that record. I think of the times I have said I loved someone and have done things for them saying that it was out of love but really it was because I have wanted them to love me back. But love is not self seeking, so that is not
truly love. I think of the times when I have thought I was in love, but I have been
jealous – but love always trusts, so if there is jealousy there is not love. I
think of the times when someone has done something to hurt me, and I have
talked about it with someone else – this is a tough one, because that is an
easy response, but love always protects, so that is not love. I think of the
times when I have felt so proud that I was showing love to someone “in spite
of” the way they were acting, but love does not boast, so that is not love. I
think of the times I have thought it was my duty to tell someone that what they
were doing was wrong – but love does not dishonor others, so that is not love.
When I go through the list, asking God to speak to me honestly, I know that
even though I try my hardest to be a good and loving person, I have fallen far
short of the standard of the Passionate Shepherd.
But that is where the true power of the Love of God comes
alive. When I realize that I can’t live up to that standard on my own, no
matter how “good” I try to be or how much of a martyr I’d like to think I am,
when I am humble enough to understand that my own pride gets in the way of God
working in my life, when I see myself as human and in need of God’s help, when
my prayers to God are to change my heart and not to change someone else, when I
recognize that I am the one who needs grace and mercy, that I am the one who
needs to learn how to love - that is the place where miracles happen.
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about how
important it is that I get myself right before I pray with or for someone else.
It’s so easy to pray, “God please help him/her to get his/her act together,
please help him/her see what he/she is doing.” But what about me? Am I so
perfect that my act is together and I can look at someone else as if they are
the one who needs God’s help? Jesus tells us not to try to take the speck out
of our brother’s eye until we take the plank out of our own. It’s as simple as
that – He doesn’t make it hard for us to understand, He tells us over and over
not to judge and yet I still find it easy to judge and find fault. For some
strange reason, loving in the way God asks us to love, in the way that He loves
us, can feel like giving up our power. But it is only when we love that way
that we have access to the full power of God, that we can walk in the victory
of the love He poured out for us all when He went to the Cross. When we love like that, we are loving with the power of God, and that can never fail.
Blessings,
Jannie Susan
Blessings,
Jannie Susan
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