If only they would do what I wanted.
If only they would take the right path.
How can I make them?
What do you do when all that you want to do – is make people do the right thing?
How do you break through to someone who has the power to break your world into a million little pieces of despair, which you’re certain “all the kings horses and all the kings men could never put back together again?”
As I see it, with this kind of devastation, you don’t let things break in the first place. So, here’s what I do: I demand a quick delivery of perfectly wrapped progress to their doorstep of pain. I offer it with the outstretched arms of “you better love this gift.” As I do, I can almost see their moment of realization, their tears of release, their jumps of joy.
I not only crave that “Glory! God!” moment, but I expect it.
The only problem is, of late, I have a sneaky suspicion that no one is listening. I have a sneaky suspicion that my words are falling as void as a tree in the woods with no one around to hear it. I have a sneaky suspicion the echo of my words are resounding to nowhere.
And while I kind of feel like pulling my hair out and screaming to the highest mountains, “It all doesn’t matter,” I realize I would be left with no hair and this might end up a big issue for me.
And the truth is, I know the truth. As much as sometimes, truth doesn’t look like truth, it always remains the truth (and that’s the truth). I am a Jesus daughter, and as Jesus daughters, we believe in things we cannot see, we walk the crazy walk called faith – it’s just what we do.
Truth means that his perfect love, as it is always known to do, grabs the hand of fear and drags it to the exit sign of no return. Adios!
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18
Notice that God did not say:
My perfect love will set all those other people free as you fix their situations.
My perfect love is the best antibiotic to cure
that person’s virus that makes you uncomfortable.
My perfect love is a tool that you can use to ensure
people don’t threaten your emotional balance.
God just gives us 2 commands:
1. Love God completely, entirely, unabashedly and wildly.
2. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Mt. 22:38:39
When we forget the “as yourself” part, we forget how to forge true love.
The only way to send out love is to receive it yourself, first.
How can you mail, stamp and deliver something you never held in your hands in the first place?
It’s as impossible as the idea that we can somehow restructure another’s mind through well-timed advice or high-held opinions. I can’t restructure the small cells that keep others stuck in big cells of defeat.
That’s God’s job to beat.
The only cell I can walk out of today is my own – and today I will. Because, the watching eyes of other people’s square blocks of doom are only boxing me in to defeat in Christ Jesus. Like a ball and chain, they chain me to a wall that seems impossible to scale. It leaves me angry at God.
Frankly, it’s a ball of confusion and a chain of pride.
Are you chained into confusion and pride?
What form of head-hitting, that moves nothing anywhere, is God calling you to stop today?
What offering of grace might he be delivering straight to your doorstep?
His gift was always meant for you.
RELEASING PRAYER:
Lord, today, we let you capture us and hold us. As we are attached to you, God, you keep us where we need to be. You deliver us to the right words, you lead us to the right hopes, you guide us in the right light. You puff us up with authentic, pure and rich love for you and others. You make us new and you guide us to freedom every time. Help us to be lighthouses of freedom, simple lights that direct others to the only shore that provides safe refuge – yours. We can’t do it on our own. We will fail, so we fall down and know that even when we can’t move, you work on our behalf. The work belongs to you God.
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