With all that has happened in the last couple of months between hurricanes and shootings, I’ve been constantly reminding myself of Whose I am and exactly where I put my identity. I’m incredibly tenderhearted. I’ve had to work to build callouses in some areas while maintaining that beautiful tenderness in others. My home city has joined the ranks of several others for violence against the police. I don’t know the whole story, and I am ok with that. I don’t need a reason to be angry or fearful. I only need a reason to love. Which, by the way, if you are living and breathing and reading (or skimming, whatever) this post, you are loved. Supernaturally loved. Undeservingly loved. Why? Because that’s what the blood of Christ does. It changes me, a sinner and one not naturally inclined to love, into one who loves all people, even if it hurts me.
I’ve had the pleasure of reading a book before it’s release (coming November 2017!) and it’s really been challenging me on the way I view God and his kingdom. Do you realize how insane Jesus command to love is? He said it’s easy to love those who love us, but we must also choose to love our enemies. Love. Unconditionally. The Greek word for this kind of love implies that it’s supernatural and makes NO SENSE. Love. Crazy, makes us look so silly because we are choosing to love everyone. It’s not an emotion or a feeling. it’s a choice. A difficult choice that we have to make over and over and over and over and over again. Love God, sure, but people? We cannot love God if we don’t love his people, his creations. Think about it. If we claim to love God and then refuse to love Kim Jong Un or ISIS sympathizers, we are nothing. We are no better than a noisy gong that makes noise with no rhyme or reason. But if we choose this supernatural love for our enemies and our friends? What a beautiful symphony that must be for God’s ears!
So here I am pondering why some view violence and war as a viable solution to all of life’s problems and realizing that God has changed me tremendously in my life of choosing him. At one point in my life, I got excited about the US bombing some area of the middle east thinking it was the coolest and best thing ever, not realizing the consequences this violence would have on people… people made in God’s image. I was chastised, rightly so, by a respected elder in our church. As I’ve gotten older, I have come to realize that I really do prefer diplomacy, even within conflicts nearer to me within my community where conflict doesn’t equal violence. “Blessed are the peacemakers.” I’ve heard this blessing my whole life. But as i’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that God is molding me and making me into this person who desires to make peace among the heartbroken and hurting, even if it means I get hurt. He’s asking me to give him those emotions that I feel so deeply, not because he doesn’t want me to feel, but because He wants that burden. My identity is not in what I do or who I say I am, but it’s in Him and who He says. Others who Jesus says are blessed? typically defined as misfits, and perhaps that’s why I’ve enjoyed reading Blessed are the Misfits… The more I start to settle into my identity in Him, the more I realize I am a misfit. (One of the chapters? “Blessed are the Lonely” — Yeah… that’s me.)
So today as I continue to feel deeply the pain of my hometown, of Vegas and friends affected directly and indirectly by it, the wildfires and the hurricanes and all those still reeling from the destruction and death left in each disaster’s wake, and as I remember that the US isn’t the only nation suffering from disasters, whether natural or man made, I am also remembering to give my burdens over to Him, to choose to love even when I don’t feel like it, and to seek Him in the hard to find places. Today, I’m remembering my identity is in Him, not my kids, job, or choices, but in Him. I’m choosing to remember that His blood was shed for all, not just my friends, but also my enemies. I’m choosing to give Him my burdens because I cannot do this on my own, nor should i.
In Him, Karen
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