Burning down others’ opinions doesn’t make us right. It makes us arsonists.
No one is remembered for what they only planned to do.
What is it that you don’t think you can do? What do you think is too big for you? Or too scary, or too risky? Sometimes God whispers it, and sometimes, he shouts it. Whatever the volume, I bet he’s always using the same three words with us: Be Not Afraid.
No one expects us to love them flawlessly, but we can love them fearlessly, furiously, and unreasonably.
These people haven’t tried to save up love like they’re going to need it later; they know we’re rivers, not reservoirs.
There’s a difference between good judgment and living in judgment.
We’re not held back by what we don’t have, but by what we don’t use.
You’ll be able to spot people who are becoming love because they want to build kingdoms, not castles. They fill their lives with people who don’t look like them or act like them or even believe the same things as them. They treat them with love and respect and are more eager to learn from them than presume they have something to teach.
But I’ve always wondered if, when we want to do something that we know is right and good, God places that desire deep in out hearts because He wants it for us and it honors Him. Maybe there are times when we think a door has been close and, instead of misinterpreting the circumstances, God wants us to kick it down. Or perhaps just sit outside of it long enough until somebody tells us we can some in.
It’s given me a lot of comfort knowing we’re all rough drafts of the people we’re still becoming.
I think Jesus meant something different when He said “enemies.” He meant we should love the people we don’t understand. The ones we disagree with. The ones who are flat wrong about more than a couple of things. I have plenty of those people in my life, and my bet is you do too.
We were born to be brave.
We make loving people a lot more complicated than Jesus did. Every time I try to protect myself by telling somebody about one of my opinions, God whispers to me and asks about my heart. Why are you so afraid? Who are you trying to impress? Am I really so insecure that I surround myself only with people who agree with me? When people are flat wrong, why do I appoint myself the sheriff to straighten them out? Burning down others’ opinions doesn’t make us right. It makes us arsonists.
Sadly, whenever I make my opinions more important than the difficult people God made, I turn the wine back into water.
Jesus never said doing these things would be easy. He just said it would work.
Love isn’t something we fall into; love is someone we become.
I’ve spent my whole life avoiding the people Jesus spent His whole life engaging.
Jesus talked to His friends a lot about how we should identify ourselves. He said it wouldn’t be what we said we believed or all the good we hoped to do someday. Nope, He said we would identify ourselves simply by how we loved people. It’s tempting to think there is more to it, but there’s not. Love isn’t something we fall into; love is someone we become.
But extravagant love often means coloring outside the lines and going beyond the norms.
We don’t need a plan to do these things. We don’t need to wait for just the right moment. We just need to show up, grab a parachute, and when it’s time, jump out of our shoes after people the way Jesus jumped out of heaven to be with us. Sometimes, we make loving people a lot more complicated than Jesus did.