Love is Crazy!!!!

Really, think about it.....love is crazy. The truest form of love, expressed all over in the Bible, the kind that loves your enemies even after persecution, the kind that loves others as yourself. According to what the world sees and lives, the love depicted in the bible is crazy and deprives ones self from moving forward or from being strong. I have been reading a lot about love in the Bible and from the book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan lately. The more I learn about true love, the more i realize how different it actually is then what the world sees true love as.

-They see love as a feeling, a temporary and conditional feeling, whereas true love is a choice, not based on emotion, but on the unconditional love of Christ given to us.

-They see love as something to achieve or to get from someone, whereas true love seeks to give to others, at all times seeking one others being, higher then themselves.

-They see love as the bond between husband and wife, family, friends, whereas true love seeks out the poor, the needy, the ones who wrong us, the forgotten, the unknown.

If I were to be wronged and betrayed by someone, to the world's standard I should stand up for myself and fight back. But that is not at all what the Bible teaches. The bible says to love your enemies, to turn the other cheek, to forgive. The world would look upon me crazily if I didn't seek back revenge. They would call me weak. What I've come to understand and instill in my heart more and more, is that it doesn't matter what the world thinks. True love confuses the world.

Have you ever loved someone so much that you went crazy? not literally maybe, but figuratively. All you could think about was that person, all you wanted to do was talk to that person, everything you did was purposed to spend time with that person. That's crazy! And what if this person you loved so crazily betrayed you by making fun of you or ignoring you? Would this "love" continue, or would you begin to find feelings for someone else? Now imagine this...God is you in this analogy, and you are the one he is crazily in love with. You have ignored him, not given him the time of day, and you have betrayed him by constantly choosing sin over him. The world says seek revenge and move on. But God does not belong to this world. His love transcends all! After being betrayed and ignored, forgotten and denied, God did not give up, but sent his one and only son to die for us!!! After all we've done, God still has chosen you.

From the beginning of time, he knew you, he knew everything about you, he intricately crafted you inside your mother's womb, guided and disciplined you through your life, and set up a path so that you might hear his Word and be saved. That's crazy to me! How could God love me that much when all I do in a day is get in a groove and forget him most of the time, and then betray him with all my sins and shortcomings? And after i finally grasp that love (of which i seek to do everyday) how can that love not pour out from me? And not just to those who love me back, but to those that have betrayed me, like i have to the One who loves me more than anything i could imagine.

As I learn more about this true love, I realize, we can't be bogged down by what the world thinks love should look like. Our job is to love God, and to love others! Simply stated. I want my love to be so evidenced by the world, that they call me crazy and push me away. I want to love God so much that it makes others uncomfortable as a child is when his/her parents kiss. I yearn to share this love, to give, to serve. I yearn for a movement in all of our hearts to make this love so widespread that the world know longer knows what to do.

Love is Unconditional

I thought I would keep going on these early posts with characteristics of love that people know but never really grasp. Love being unconditional is one of those concepts. Just about everything on our planet is conditional. We live in a highly selfish society where love is only given to those that deserve it or have done something loving toward us first. When someone does do something loving toward us, we automatically assume its because we did something to deserve it. Its so hard for us to understand what unconditional actually means. And I know some of you out there are like, "I know what unconditional means, I'm not stupid", then you are just like me! So many times in my life, in so many different areas of Christianity have I felt like I knew the answers to everything, and to be completely honest, I do know a lot of the knowledge of what is in the Bible. The problem I continually face is instilling the knowledge I have into my heart; To not just know what it means to live your life a sacrifice for others, but to actually have it in my heart to go do it; To not just know that I don't have to fear because God is with me at all times, but to actually step out and trust in that promise; To not just know and understand what love is, but to actually love on others. Until you truly know and feel what unconditional means in your heart, you can have the definition, the language of origin, the pronunciation, you might even know how to use it in a sentence, but it will never really mean anything to you. I'm about to get real open in this posting so be prepared. A lot of times in my life I find myself feeling like a failure, sometimes due to the stupid situations i constantly find myself in, sometimes due to fear and not being able to step out. Whatever the instance is, lately I have been feeling like that. I'm constantly struggling with thoughts of why anyone would even want to merely like me or hang out with me. Just this last week in a car ride in the middle of the night, I found myself getting angry at myself because I couldn't even get over the fear of taking a risk and being honest. A lot of times like that, (it may sound silly) but then I automatically assume that I'm a failure, and because I am a failure, then they must not like me anymore, and it just goes down hill from there. It's severely dampened a lot of the relationships Ive had with people. And I don't just find myself in these situations with friends; I find myself doing this with God a lot too. I can never wrap my head around no matter what I do, God will always love me and want to keep spending time with me. I forget God's love; I forget that God fearfully and wonderfully created me. If I could take 10 minutes of your time to go check out a video of part of the "How Great is Our God" tour. It changes my perspective every time i watch it.

This Link will take you there

Doesn't that just blow your mind? the whole series of videos, if you ever get the chance to watch them, will rock your world. Sometimes in our lives, we forget about small details like that. We live what we see, and we forget what we don't. God's unconditional love is one of those things we have a hard time seeing. Getting into the word this morning, and listening to songs of God's love, and reading what God is doing in others life has all helped me start my day today. I've fallen away lately from getting into God's word as Ive been traveling, which is probably in part why I find myself feeling like a failure all the time. Every time I watch that video, I can't help but remember the love God has for me. Guys, He will never leave you! grasp that today. His love is unconditional. Don't just know it, Go and live it. No matter how many times you feel like a failure like I do, take heart, for God is still there lifting you back up. So take his hand, get back up, and continue to try and love Him as he loves you.