The other day, I was going through 'big picture' ice breaker questions with my friends at the kitchen table (classic Sammie I know). We came upon this question: If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be? My answer is what I want to talk about today. I said "I would want everyone to know how much God loves them, and how that's shown through what Jesus did for us."
Fact: we all desire love. (I sound like Dwight Schrute oh gosh).
When people read the most famous passage in the Bible about love, 1 Corinthians 13, they often stop before verse 13 that says "Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." Love is our greatest motivator to do good, and I think that's a good thing because most of us desire to experience love anyway.
In the world, love has so many different definitions. It is a feeling, emotion, action, and choice. It is equated to infatuation and deep affection alike. It is so many things, yet sometimes means nothing at all. We express love for people we care about, and for our favorite song of the week. We love everything. I definitely don't think this is a bad thing (I really do love Snowshoes by Caamp this week), but I do think that real Love (capital "L" love) can only be defined by the God who created it.
The whole point of this post is for me to tell you that God loves you. Romans 8 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, and I wanted to include a few verses from it below because I think Paul describes the love of God better than I ever could.
"32 Since [God] did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?. . . 38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:32; 38-39
If we believe in a God, then we want to believe in a God who loves us. And the cool thing about God is that He doesn't just say He loves us; He showed us through sending His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins (anything we've ever done wrong, knowingly or not). He didn't even spare His own Son for you and me!
That's a God I want to believe in.
I think the world we live in gets Love wrong a lot of the time. We think we can earn love through doing the right thing or being 'good enough.' I struggled with this a lot this year. I put a lot of pressure on myself to always do the right thing, and with that came the pressure to love people perfectly. It was exhausting, and frankly, impossible. These pressures are only heightened during the holiday season, when really I think they should be lessened. The whole point of Christmas is to realize the humility and love God displayed for us by coming to earth as a baby, to live and die for us. Our actions and love aren't factored into that equation at all; only His are.
The God that I know is not looking to shame or condemn us. He's not even looking to change us; He's looking to love us. He knows that experiencing His love is all it takes to change a life. He loves us as we are in this very moment, with our imperfections and imperfect love of others.
I'm so grateful to have people in my life who speak these truths over me. That my identity is not in what I can do for God - it's in what He has already done for me. So I guess my hope with this post is that I can provide that same encouragement for someone else. Regardless of what you believe, I just want you to know you are loved, not judged. Merry Christmas everyone :)
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