What’s been running through my head lately ...

Current mood: awake

I would have to say that emotionally this has been one of my distressing weeks. I won't go into why. What I will say is that through it all, like one word kept coming to mind. What is that ONE word you ask? LOVE.

This week God kept drawing me to him and quietly whispering to my spirit to love others and love him regardless of how I felt, what I understood, or what my will wanted to do. I have to honestly say that it has been difficult for me to do that this week, but I can also honestly say that I tried to give it my best shot even when I felt clueless as to how to "love" others in the moment. You see, real love looks like many different things, and God's path is not a cookie cutter route. So, I've had to go before him and just cry out in transparency for His godly wisdom.

Today especially, it has been difficult. I kept hearing this verse - 1 John 4:19. We love him because he first loved us. I kept reading on earlier this morning and verse 21 hit me too. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God loves his brother also. And then, later this morning I heard a story that really moved me. It too was about God's love. The story goes as follows ...

A young boy had a mother who was badly marred. Her face was badly mangled and her arm terribly scarred. Because of these injuries, her little boy was terribly ashamed of his mother. Although he had friends, he would do his best to not have them over to his house, and if they did happen to visit, he would try and keep them from seeing his mom.

As time went by, the boy grew up, but the shame he felt for his mother never left him. One day, a man who had finally had enough of the boy's atrocious behavior, sat the boy down to talk with him. The man, charged with emotion, asked the boy if he knew why his mother was so badly scarred. The boy had no idea, and so the man told him. "Young man," the man said, "your mother looks that way because one day long ago there was a fire. A house was on fire, and your mother rushed inside. She risked her all to save a life that was within that burning house. That life, young man, was you. Your mother is so badly scarred and burnt so that you could live."

After hearing the older man speak, the young man realized that his actions were wrong. The shame he had held for his mother turned into pride after hearing the man's story as he realized that his mother's scars had in fact saved his life and were out of love.

For me when it comes to love, I've also been thinking about how much I want to love and please God. I really hate to see sin both in myself and others. I don't want to get distracted by the world or stuff and simply put forget to make loving God my first priority. Sadly, it can really be easy to do that. And so, I leave you with a few more verses that encourage me in the right direction ...

Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude] ~ Romans 12.2

If you have heard Christ and been taught be him, as the truth is in Jesus, then put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. ~ Ephesians 4:21-24

If then you have been raised with Christ, aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth. ~ Colossians 3.1-2