This I Love

And this I love, in being able to share life together. The ups and downs, the good times and bad. Hopes. Dreams. Laughter and sadness. Games and books. Music. Friends.

Words cannot describe what it means to be part of another's life. To share and partake. To be a part of. To feel included in every way. Nothing held back. In no way excluded.

Fully a part of.

To encourage and lift up. To make a difference in another's life. To give them a spark to carry through in their own journey. May we all do that for each other.

Making us all on the inside.

A small part of one another.

are we blind?!

After walking through the checkout line in Giant Eagle today, I got pretty angry. Tabloids are tabloids, but they reveal bitter truth about society. And yes, we are all keeping a watchful eye the government, politics, international relations, etc., but somehow I feel like we are overlooking way too much.


Is there any respect left for sex?... For marriage?... For families?...



There is a vicious cycle occurring that is ripping apart society as we know it. Although it's been going on for quite some time, nearly everything is geared towards sex, and I am so sick of it! The perversion of something so beautiful as a physical expression of love between wife and husband--an act of selfless giving to each other--has been turned into self-filled pleasure coupled with exploitation.

And the sad part is...

How young kids are being filled with such notions.

These stats are from 2007, compiled into a booklet from an event I attended in Pittsbugh, called BattleCry. And I'm sure they have gone up (or down) since then.

-Every 6.7 scenes on television include a sexual topic.
-The most watched teen network is MTV, where more than 30,000 soft porn images are broadcast every week.
-Average age of first sex: 15.8 years old.
-Average age of first internet exposure to pornography is 11.
-The largest consumer of internet pornography is currently, young people ages 12-17.

And on and on the list goes! It's sick!!! The internet, tv, all forms of media purge our brains with everything sex. It's no wonder it's a problem!

And because sex is so free... then who needs marriage! Right? Wrong. I was told that being physically intimate leads to a false sense of closeness. It's not the relationship... It's an expression of it. The emotional wreckage is incredible! Broken, aching hearts everywhere... A wonderful expression of love at the wrong time.

What we need is a monumental perspective change. A book I recently read, The Red Tent, set during the time of Rachel, Jacob, and Leah, tells a story through Dinah's eyes. Even as a child Dinah saw the dogs and knew what was going on during a brother's honeymoon. All the same it was out in the open. Not something hidden. Not something to be ashamed of. Sex was (and still is) a beautiful fact of life. Maybe if more parental guidance was present to shape the views and intentions of it all there wouldn't be as much of a problem. To keep something hidden in the dark, almost as a secret, is sometimes the cause for total rebellion. Now, I am by no means saying that we just need to blatantly expose children to this. We just need to convey the worth, value, and understanding of it all.

Then we have marriage. It scares me how little respect this gets. All over the place. People marrying, divorcing, not marrying and just having kids, etc. like it's nothing (and of course there are times when it is best to be out of a relationship). This is like a bloodbath on the family system. This was not intended.

And in the end we have the cycle of false intimacy leading to emotional wreckage. How can we have healthy relationships in such conditions?

Love. Pure love. Holy love. Unconditional love. Love no matter what. Love that says I forgive you. Love that wipes out the hurt, fear, and pain. We fail to see it! We too often fail to grasp hold of it! This eternal Love that never, never ends and is always reaching for us! We can't love everyone with the real Love we need. That can only come from the one true God.

Perfect love drives out fear.

Only the One Who made us can love us perfectly with the love we really need.. To know that we are always accepted, loved, cherished, thought of, cared for, forgiven, heard.

God so longs to make us whole and complete through Jesus Christ. If we all came to realize how crazy the Lord is over us, how jealously and madly in love with us God is. Then...

~We'd be able to forgive each other a little easier, knowing that we are forgiven.
~We would accept each other, knowing that we are accepted.
~We would be enabled to love each other, knowing that we are loved.
You get the idea.

And then...
We could have better, healthier relationships, all because we have a relationship with the One--Father, Son, Holy Spirit. More respect. Better marriages. Healthy families. Better society.

dynamic!

"I," she opened her hands to include Jesus and Papa, "I am a verb. I am that I am. I will be who I will be. I am a verb! I am alive, dynamic, ever active, and moving. I am a being verb."

"My words are alive and dynamic - full of life and possibility..."

From The Shack

I have a friend (you know who you are!) that is very dynamic! Always thinking, changing, moving... It is refreshing to be around. Some people might think, "Can't you just be happy the way things are?!" But that is exactly the point...

The danger of complacency is far-reaching. Being settled, stagnant, and unmoving is as filthy as a rank pond with no moving water. God is the only One who never changes. We are constantly in process, being shaped, melted, and molded. So the moment we quit moving is the moment we are no longer going forward.

Active.

Alive.

Dynamic.

Energetic.

May we never be complacent to stay where we're at. May we always be pressing towards the Higher Goal while remaining sure and stable on the Rock.

And by the way... God IS! Right here, right NOW!!!

Sometimes

Sometimes the Lord takes us through crazy times. They can't be explained. In one breath everything is fine, in the next it seems that the world has turned upside-down. Then it goes back again.

It's like in music, with the random dissonances. Out of nowhere! A pianist tosses a chord, the melody takes an unexpected turn... I love it. It makes me laugh. Dissonance can be awful to listen to, unless you hear it in a different light.

And I guess that's where the gap is bridged: perception. I don't know when, but somewhere along the line my view of hard times got tossed out the window. Instead of voicing my thankfulness, keeping my eyes on Jesus and just trusting, and loving the Lord to the fullest, I got consumed with the gloominess. God never intended this!

Hard times can be so glorious.. They can bring so much out in us.. If only we would keep our eyes on the Lord and not the storm. Just like Peter walking on water, when we look at the storms in life and away from Jesus, we start to sink. God has promised to be with us through the waters and the fire. Keep focused!

We never really go through anything alone. I mean it's all over the place in the Bible that God says, "Don't be afraid! I am with you!" Oh to take hold of this!

So God promises us in Romans 8:28 that "In all things we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. So in those some-times when we aren't in line with Him, we know He's always there, still working on our behalf, taking each and every situation and turning it around for our own good and benefit.

Just keeping seeking, keep pressing into the Lord. He rewards us when we seek Him. And may your some-times be kept under the watchful and attentive eye of the Lord.