We Are Called Upon to Love

Brothers and  Sisters, Who are loved by God...

I have always looked at relationships as having PURPOSE:
-a way to have children
-a way to learn lessons
-as an example of who I could become (and even more valuable, who I didn't want to be)
-as a way to be stronger together than you would be alone
-to know how to conduct yourself around others
-to practice manners and respect
-to learn how to serve
...the list could go on. I have put relationships to work rather than being still within them.

I've always seen love as a result of those ties, after trust has been built. I have reserved it for family (church family included). I have seen love as something that grows over time. Love has been something for me to work on and sometimes loving feels really hard. I have seen love as a tie that can be severed. I thought love was something to be earned.  I thought people had to be loveable to be loved. I have been very wrong.

What had never occurred to me is that God has put people in front of us as a CALL TO LOVE. It is a directive to be obeyed, not a screening process with us as judge and jury. He uses a variety of people and circumstances to strengthen our reslove for it, to stretch (and sometimes break) our definitions and boundaries of love. He looks to be the strength in our vulnerability in loving someone else. Our love is another doorway He uses to BE love.

We cry out to God to bring heaven to earth but LOVE is the power to know heaven NOW, to have it on earth and PARTICIPATE in a  Divine Assignment. Heaven doesn't have to be just out of reach. It is something that can be pulled down into a moment of pure love, especially when the alternative could easily be hate.

Look at the people who are in front of you today. You have been called to love them, even when they don't know they've also been called on Divine Mission for you. Regardless, we can do OUR part.

(Having said that, a note of caution: We can love without standing in the pathway of abuse, for ourselves and especially as the advocate for our children. God also calls us to discern what is growing you in Him and what the world is using to diminish your capacity for Him. Love with abandon but execute with wisdom for proximity and participation.)