Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
Those times when I’m innocuously
going about a banal task are times ripe for revelation. Whenever I least expect
the Presence to move. Suddenly God showed me what I’ve been attempting to do
all this past decade-and-a-half.
For the most part I succeed, yet I’ve
also failed so many times.
But if failure to love fuels the
success we crave, failure only fortifies our determination. Love is the decree,
and we’re richer only as others become richer. What a gift it is to want to love.
Here it the state: decide to love with unrelenting tenacity
because joy overwhelms us to do so.
It must be a revelation we receive
that makes this possible. Nobody does it their own strength. Warning however:
this is not a family ministry. Family is a place where we must love, where
there is no option, yet in many cases love is so much harder with family — we never
want it to be, but so often it just is.
As we step into the world of giving
selflessly, we walk into the open expanse of peace with God. We lose nothing,
even if it means we surrender what pitiful control we could insist upon taking.
We gain precious parcels of his joy-lit grace for the fact that we live so volubly
beyond our guarded selves. The whole world opens up, and I liken this to the true
abundant life. Unconditional love for God, so indebted to Him that we consider
no thought for frustration or disappointment. Of course, we cannot execute such
love with enduring perfection, but there is a revelation to receive that compels
our joy to serve for love.
Even as we may feel a little ‘off’
we choose to smile, to bless the other
person. If they’re discerning enough to notice our insipid demeanour, and beautiful
enough to inquire if we would like to share, we give them the gift of our
vulnerability. And yet if they’re not discerning to notice, God’s grace has advanced
to them a blessing, and our reward is kept safe in the secret Kingdom — nothing
of material reward.
A love in the spirit of Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego is a love that seeks to love for consummate privilege of
love, though that might cost us so much. This is a faith that loves so extravagantly
it would rather not be rewarded, such is the resolve of our will to suffer now
in order to win praise in heaven.
This is what God impresses on our
hearts concerning our lives: measure love by no other means than devotion of
selfless sacrifice without condition. When we achieve this, we’re pure and
blameless even amid a society that falls foul of violence and ill-gotten gain.
Love never fails us because love
believes enough to act in faith and trusts enough to be girded in hope.
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