All you need is love...

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3; 13; John 13:35

One of the most important aspects of who we are as Christians is to be love. It doesn't matter how much you do, if that action is without love people know and above all else God knows. So often we use this concept of loving people without "liking" them. I'm just not convinced this is a correct understanding. Paul seems to say in 1 Corinthians that love stands above both our faith and hope. I just think if we choose to really love, then it will look different than the world. And just in case you were wondering love in the world is that you can love someone but not like them. We have got to be different. I said a second ago that if we "choose to love." I believe with all my heart that love is not something that you necessarily stumble upon, or something that you suddenly fall into. I really believe that love is something you become, something that makes up who you are. Out of that you find someone who there is a special sort of connection with and then you choose to love them even more differently. By this I mean you choose to love them is a different way, in a special covenant way (marriage). You share this gospel centered love with one another, you share you life with one another, you share every bit of who you are with one another. I know this is somewhat of a foreign concept but think about it. If love is a not a choice, then why do so many choose to fall out of love (divorce). Love is something that, most of the time, happens so naturally in the good times but it is in those bad times when we see if we really are going to keep that commitment and love through the storms. So I believe that love is a choice, but I also believe that it is a commitment you make. To God you commit to love Him with all of you heart, soul, mind, and strength. To others you commit to love them, just as you love yourself (to rejoice with them, mourn with them, help them in time of need. etc.). To your husband or wife you make a commitment (or maybe I should use the stronger term covenant here) to love them, care for them, treasure them, seek to know them better and better until you both die (that's why that language of covenant my be more appropriate). Love is such an important part of who we are as Christians. After Jesus tells His disciples of the greatest commandment (to love God with all you are and then love your neighbor as yourself), he tells them in John 13:35 that people will know that we are His disciples if we have love for one another.
This was a struggle for me to understand for a while. When I was charismatic the theology was so jacked up, but man they knew how to love. Everything I learned about loving as Christ came from my time there. Honestly once my theology came more into focus and more "southern baptist" in nature, it seemed like love was put on the back burner. There was always good theology, but there was always people at odds with one another, or just making things up to make others look bad. It just didn't make any sense to me. Those crazy charismatics may not have had their theology all together, but there was not doubt love like the Father desires among His people. And now my Southern Baptist friends, we have the theology that is so biblical but for some reason we find it so hard to love one another as Christ desires.
I pray that this makes sense and it may have to be edited as I progress in this journey called life, but for now... These are my thoughts, feelings, and everything in between.

Wherever He Leads, I'll Go...

The call on our lives is to "deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him." We must make attempts to plan ahead, but we must ultimately trust in the sovereign purpose of God. The honest and good desires I have for my life, just may not be the desires that He has for my life. This doesn't discourage me or make my life incomplete, but instead offers me great encouragement. I will be quick to tell you that I have no idea where God may call me, but I my prayer is this... "Wherever You lead, Lord I'll go." I'm not saying that this will always be easy or crystal clear but one promise remains, "and lo I am with you even to the end of the age." I don't know where He is taking me, but I rest in the promise that wherever that may be He is. My prayer is that wherever I find myself that I would be an active part in fulfilling the great commission and that I would be faithful with the immediate tasks that He places before me. Of course my natural inclination is to return to minister where I am from, but when you surrender your life to the call of God that just isn't always the case. God will send me wherever He desires and knows where I will be most effective. I pray that I would never find myself taking the place of Him in my life and making decisions without seeking Him. The truth of the matter is that this life is complicated. People will always push you to plan ahead even plan your life out, and I say do that but hold on loosely to those plans. People will always say to have a backup plan, and my backup plan is to step back and seek the face of God. I really do believe that He is in control, and that He can handle this apart from my slanted input. May God truly lead, guide, and direct us.