Life rarely turns out as we might dream it will be when we're young and idealistic. Twists, turns, forks, road blocks-all these serve to make for a far more dramatic real life than most of us could envision. We step forward and back. We gain, we lose. We worry about so many things that we can't control, often times as what really matters blazes past us, almost unseen.
We look at life as a series of 'have to's', instead of a series of events brought in to our particular life for a purpose. The purpose for things in my life will be completely different than the purpose for things in yours. Because we are all unique, we have varied, often intricate reasons for what still needs to be learned.
Some of us need to learn how to truly love beyond what we deem possible. Some of us need to learn to let go of things that hold us back and actually cause harm. We cling to these things because their presence insinuates a form of comfort and normalcy, when breaking free of them could represent such a radical change that our life's course would be permanently altered.
I think our greatest need as humans-the thing a vast majority would say is missing across cultural, racial, ethnic, and gender lines is acceptance of who we are. Acceptance equals love. That's a balanced equation there, folks.
Love drives us. Motivates us. Consumes us. Defines us. It alters us, if we let it. Counterintuitively, what society offers us as a cheap, garish imitation-lust- leaves us empty. Cheats us. Demoralizes us. If I am drawing the next breath, I am needing love-both to give it and receive it. That's how we're put together...how we're designed. I live alone because a decade ago I chose to become single. I thought being alone would be better than the self-imposed cage I was living in at the time. Those who are single know how exhausting it is to always be on your own. To have no one there at the end of a terrible day to enfold you in their arms and tell you they care, no matter what the world is telling you. The silence that comes with choosing to isolate yourself is stunning. I have a couple cats because singleness is deafeningly silent.
Just as anything solar powered needs the energy of the sun to work at peak capacity, we humans need love to be all we're intended to be. Not the dalliance of lust. The cheap, dirty-under-the-surface imitation. But love, as it was intended to be shared by the One Who created us. Have you ever noticed how love, shared-grows? And when you care about someone, and they in return, care about you, how a grief is halved? That's love. It covers, folks. Everything. It's patient, kind. Never haughty or selfish or rude, and it will hardly even notice when others do it wrong. (I Cor 13:4)
This is why our world suffers so much today. Because so many have bought in to the lie lust serves up on a designer-inspired platter. It looks good on the outside, but it's fake. Just done for the camera. There is no content. Wait for the real thing. And, if you're lucky enough to have it, nurture it. It will stand you in good stead when storms rage all around you. It will become the beacon from the shore of your life's lighthouse, and will guide you to the harbor, where it is safe and calm.
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