As Juliana Theory so well puts it, we're all just a shell of a man. Empty. Full of really nothing good.
Tonight I had an experience that made me realize that nothing good of myself is of me. When I'm pushed to the end of my rope, my natural reaction isn't love. And when your natural reaction isn't love, well then I think it's safe to assume the love you display isn't natural.
Love spans a multitude of actions: patience, faithfulness, caring, selflessness, goodness, etc. So when I say "love", please know I mean many things.
Throughout our lives, individually and corporately, I think a main purpose might very well be to have love become as natural as humanly possible. To have love not become merely a reactive feeling, but a state of being.
You can be sympathetic, and not love. You can be empathetic, and not love. Even worse, you can say you love, and not even touch the reality of what the word entails.
I am empty. You are empty. And I fear we will stay empty until we allow Love to fill our very souls.
Do not let your love become a reaction; let your love be your beating heart and ever-rising and falling lungs. Allow the One who is Love to love through you.
I need more than I have, because I alone have nothing. But He, He has, and is, everything.
mel, this is beautiful. you are beautiful - He is beautiful through you. one of the best posts I've read on the Internet from anyone. seriously, you are speaking part of the gospel at its core in a way that most people don't ever get and the rest just sometimes get. my life would be so different if only I lived in that truth each moment. thank you for the reminder!! though we were dead, we were raised in Christ by his blood, the gift oh god, so that no one can boast.
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