Over the last few years, I thought I had a major problem. This
problem was that I love hard. I really thought that was a bad thing. Who wants
to be the one that falls hard or cares more than the other person (family,
friends, and romantic)? I hated feeling like I was being taken for granted, but
I could not stop caring for those in my life. I’ve been in plenty of
friendships and relationships where I was the one who maintained communication
and it is very draining.
Recently, I have been more diligent about studying the Bible
and really taking to heart the messages at church on Sunday. But one listen of
Kirk Franklin song really triggered something in my brain that made a lot of
things make sense to me. On my way to work on Monday, I listened to his hit
song “Love.” It finally resonated to me that loving hard is not a curse, but
the true purpose of love. If I want to imitate God as Ephesians 5:1-2 says,
then I have to love people regardless of how they feel about me. In “Love,” the
choir sings about God showing them what it really means to love. When I heard
that I realized as long as I strive to love like the Lord, then loving with all
my heart and soul is the right thing to do.
I really thought about the fact that even though I do,
think, and want to do wrong God still loves me and gives me another chance. Now
do I need to let people who are going to use me and abuse me in or back into my
life? No, but I need to be forgiving because Christ forgave me for all I have
done. If I was drained through the few people that I have interacted with, I
can only imagine how strong God is for loving every living person on this
earth.
I want to work toward loving others like God loves us. Could
you imagine giving your only son (or most important treasure) for someone else?
Yea, me neither. What we can do though, is take out time to SHOW the people in
our lives that we love and appreciate their presence in our life. We can also
forgive those who wrong us (Psalm 6:12; the Lord’s Prayer) in love.
I really feel better about love. I felt bad about still
loving and caring about various people who have been in and out of my life and
now I don’t feel bad anymore. I know that God would want me to love, not hate. Like
my blog post from a few weeks ago said, “Loved people, Love people,” so spread
the LOVE!
Love,
BK
“Be imitators of God, therefore as dearly loved children and
live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a
fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”—Ephesians 5:1-2 [NIV]
