To Love and Be Loved
4/24/15
It's difficult to be in a relationship and then it fall apart.
For awhile you're wrapped up in loving someone and them loving you back, and it becomes your entire world...then one day, it's all gone.
I don't know if you've experienced this particular sort of pain or or not, but we've all found ourselves in a plateau of change. And after the confrontation or the life altering decision has been made, after the action has been taken, we look around and wonder what it was all for in the first place. What is our reason for living? breathing? dreaming? being?
It's like finding our purpose all over again.
I used to be so confident about my purpose. Preaching on purpose was a high past time of mine. "Purpose proposed on a cross" was a coined statement of mine; it made sense, and I placed all my faith in it.
But despite knowing that it is true, having focused my attentions on another love for some time, the change has left me to wonder how I might answer the big question of life for others who have possibly felt the tug of hopeless depression or meaninglessness.
Whether or not we have all love and lost, we have all experienced things that shake our foundation or make us wonder what the sense of it all is?
I truly believe that the answer is more simple than we realize.
The purpose of life is to love and be loved. You may be thinking, "that sounds incredibly nonspiritual", but it truly is the answer, if we search our hearts, that we want to hear.
All the songs about love, the lyrics that we know to be more than just words but truth...."We all just wanna be wanted", "We just want somebody to love", "We all want to be loved"...
Do we really believe that this desire to 'love and be loved' is without meaning or purpose? Is this desire(s) a fault in us? or perhaps the key?
I think we all start off hopeful, with our day dreams of love and perhaps our goals of serving others. But somewhere along the line we realize it is harder to love than we first had thought. Our desire for a 'help meet' or that 'special someone' blossoms into a dream and then it all comes tumbling down when things don't go as we planned. And in that our hope for purpose is squashed to some extent...
If people or things leave, die, fail us; if we aren't adequate and fail, die, then what is the sense of living?
Is there not something revealing about this picture? We all want something that is perfect and unchanging, something that we can love and will love us back by remaining constant and good.
You know I used to be caught up in believing that my purpose came from "Doing things for God" and as good as that sounds, and can be backed up with quotes and verses...it is a shallow purpose.
I have found that in serving God, one must serve people...and there comes a time when people just don't seem worth our time and investment, because people are failable, changeable, and really just pitiful sometimes. So ever serving others, cannot be our purpose.
And even to tell some of us "The purpose of life, the reason you are alive is bring glory to God" doesn't really mean anything to us...it doesn't 'stir' us to want to live, especially to someone who doesn't know this God in the first place. It's not that this statement doesn't have truth in it, it's just not what's gonna make a difference for the person who is down and out and needs a reason to keep on keepin' on with more than a sigh and a prayer.
It's difficult to be in a relationship and then it fall apart.
For awhile you're wrapped up in loving someone and them loving you back, and it becomes your entire world...then one day, it's all gone.
I don't know if you've experienced this particular sort of pain or or not, but we've all found ourselves in a plateau of change. And after the confrontation or the life altering decision has been made, after the action has been taken, we look around and wonder what it was all for in the first place. What is our reason for living? breathing? dreaming? being?
It's like finding our purpose all over again.
I used to be so confident about my purpose. Preaching on purpose was a high past time of mine. "Purpose proposed on a cross" was a coined statement of mine; it made sense, and I placed all my faith in it.
But despite knowing that it is true, having focused my attentions on another love for some time, the change has left me to wonder how I might answer the big question of life for others who have possibly felt the tug of hopeless depression or meaninglessness.
Whether or not we have all love and lost, we have all experienced things that shake our foundation or make us wonder what the sense of it all is?
I truly believe that the answer is more simple than we realize.
The purpose of life is to love and be loved. You may be thinking, "that sounds incredibly nonspiritual", but it truly is the answer, if we search our hearts, that we want to hear.
All the songs about love, the lyrics that we know to be more than just words but truth...."We all just wanna be wanted", "We just want somebody to love", "We all want to be loved"...
Do we really believe that this desire to 'love and be loved' is without meaning or purpose? Is this desire(s) a fault in us? or perhaps the key?
I think we all start off hopeful, with our day dreams of love and perhaps our goals of serving others. But somewhere along the line we realize it is harder to love than we first had thought. Our desire for a 'help meet' or that 'special someone' blossoms into a dream and then it all comes tumbling down when things don't go as we planned. And in that our hope for purpose is squashed to some extent...
If people or things leave, die, fail us; if we aren't adequate and fail, die, then what is the sense of living?
Is there not something revealing about this picture? We all want something that is perfect and unchanging, something that we can love and will love us back by remaining constant and good.
You know I used to be caught up in believing that my purpose came from "Doing things for God" and as good as that sounds, and can be backed up with quotes and verses...it is a shallow purpose.
I have found that in serving God, one must serve people...and there comes a time when people just don't seem worth our time and investment, because people are failable, changeable, and really just pitiful sometimes. So ever serving others, cannot be our purpose.
And even to tell some of us "The purpose of life, the reason you are alive is bring glory to God" doesn't really mean anything to us...it doesn't 'stir' us to want to live, especially to someone who doesn't know this God in the first place. It's not that this statement doesn't have truth in it, it's just not what's gonna make a difference for the person who is down and out and needs a reason to keep on keepin' on with more than a sigh and a prayer.
So, what does the word say?
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19We love because he first loved us. 20Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. 1 John 4:7-20
We live and love, BECAUSE of Christ. We love because He first loved us. If we do not first know His love for us, then we will not have a reason to live or continue to love as He did. It is God's love that gives us a reason to live and to thrive. Once we know His love we want to share it.
It is not 'for' God that we live, but 'because' of Him. The Lord created us because He takes pleasure in us, and loves us. We think that in order to truly be living purposefully we must 'do' 'do' 'do', but really where we find lasting joy and purpose is just in being loved by God and loving him back. It shouldn't be something we 'have' to do, our feeling of life and purpose shouldn't come from 'having to somehow obtain it', but rather it comes from Christ alone and knowing Him. Life is simpler than we thought.
And so ultimately, our existence is but a matter and exercise of our own choice to receive God's love or not, and living a life of love in return...to choose to be with God, or not.
I think truthfully, the reason we feel so lacking in purpose also, is because we are not eternity minded. We forget that this earth is not all there is, and that what we do here on earth will be rewarded in heaven.
And though we cannot quite grasp what those rewards will look like, we know that they will be.
Our goal is to live life to the fullest in the Spirit of God. To live in the joy, peace, and love that He freely gives. And to be lights in this dark world.
Because this world cannot fill the hole in our hearts. We long for a day before the throne, of no pain, no tears, and being able to love others and not ever have to say goodbye. And once we realize that this world cannot fill our hearts, and that we truly have a longing for eternity then we must share the hope of the gospel with others. We must tell them the way. For how could we ever stand before God in that heavenly place, and not feel such guilt for having failed to tell others, for having failed to make our lives about sharing the way to such a place?
It is in knowing of God and focusing on Eternity that we find our motivation...to love others, and share with them the "good news" of the gospel, and living holy lives...so that we may live one day in a sinless world, with no pain, and no tears and no loss.
There is power in this love that has been shed upon us. We have hope. And we shall be rewarded according to our deeds, be they good or be they bad. So don't live out of fear, but out of love.
For love is eternal, and true love for others reaps good rewards in eternity.
So rejoice in this fact, that you are eternally loved. And shout it from the hill tops. Because the God who spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us, will he not also reward us with every good thing? He never changes, His love stays the same. Look to Him, He won't let you go.
There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved. George Sand
Because this world cannot fill the hole in our hearts. We long for a day before the throne, of no pain, no tears, and being able to love others and not ever have to say goodbye. And once we realize that this world cannot fill our hearts, and that we truly have a longing for eternity then we must share the hope of the gospel with others. We must tell them the way. For how could we ever stand before God in that heavenly place, and not feel such guilt for having failed to tell others, for having failed to make our lives about sharing the way to such a place?
It is in knowing of God and focusing on Eternity that we find our motivation...to love others, and share with them the "good news" of the gospel, and living holy lives...so that we may live one day in a sinless world, with no pain, and no tears and no loss.
There is power in this love that has been shed upon us. We have hope. And we shall be rewarded according to our deeds, be they good or be they bad. So don't live out of fear, but out of love.
For love is eternal, and true love for others reaps good rewards in eternity.
So rejoice in this fact, that you are eternally loved. And shout it from the hill tops. Because the God who spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us, will he not also reward us with every good thing? He never changes, His love stays the same. Look to Him, He won't let you go.
There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved. George Sand
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