Continuing the Reflections on the Book Winning the War on Worry by Louie Giglio

 What's at the heart of worry?

I never considered this question. I never really "worried" about what's behind "worry." I just do it. I worry. However, reading through this little book by Louie Giglio, Winning the War on Worry I got to page 20 and there was a statement that made me hit the brakes: "at the heart of worry is our need to be in control."

Pastor Giglio takes the readers back to Adam and Eve and how that one decision to disobey God was all about control. They believed the lie of the enemy that told them, "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3: 5).  The key phrase in this lie is:  "you will be like God..." That was it. Eve and then Adam wanted to be like God. The funny thing is, they already were!

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1: 27

We already are made in the image of God. That's what Adam and Eve forgot. They allowed the lies of the enemy to enter their minds, clouding the truth. So they gave up paradise for the twisted promise of knowledge. This reminds me of when Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of lentil stew. I mean, what is it about food that makes us forget and causes us to fall in the traps of manipulators? Whether delicious cake or a magnificent fountain of chocolate fondue or fruit or lentil stew, food is one of those double-edged swords that nourishes us on one side and on the other entices us to err.  It is no wonder food is used as a control item. Oftentimes, people who worry because they feel like their lives are out of control use food as a tool to control what little they can. They would either eat in excess or not eat at all as a way to say to others and to themselves, even if subconsciously, "I can control this." So...could Pastor Giglio be onto something here?

In my own experience, if I'm honest, I will probably get to the same conclusion: at the heart of worry is my need to be in control. I don't think I do it consciously...but it is there. One of my greatest worries in life is the fear that I will get sick and die too young and leave my family on their own. Therefore, every time I am facing medical testing and health issues, my worry level goes on red alert. Why do I worry? Because illness usually means I am not in control and my life is not going to unfold the way I had planned it. Health issues usually have a habit of altering everything. So the plans and goals we had so carefully designed go out the door very quickly. And I. DO. NOT. LIKE. THAT!

I tend to believe that my life goes better when it flows according to my plans. I even tell my kids more often I'd like to admit: "If you'd just do what I say, your lives would be SO much better!!!"

I know...I do say that quite often.

The thing is, that's a lie! What they have to do is what God says in His Word! So de enemy makes me doubt that God's promises are not really true or at least not for me AND that life could be perfect if I get to direct my path and the paths of my loved ones. But like Pastor Giglio reminds us, God's promises and His love are 100% true! He became flesh to die for us so we would not face eternal separation from God but eternal life with Him! What more proof we need of His love and care? And as for the "life would be perfect if it all went according to MY design," well...look how it turned out for Adam and Eve...we are still reaping the consequences of them deciding they wanted absolute control. I don't really have to go that far to realize I am doomed when I try to take full control of my destiny...just ask those around me. They'll be able to tell you what happens when hurricane Gisela passes by...

So what to do? Relent. Let Go. Submit. Surrender.

"Jesus' resurrection puts the brakes on our need for control because we can fully trust that the One who overcame death, hell, and the grave loves us and gives His victorious life to us through Jesus Christ. He promises to care for us. Guide us. Protect us." (page 24) And all His promises are true!

We can trust Him because,

...he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53: 5

What a marvelous truth, spoken to us 700 years before the birth of Christ! And it came to pass and we are living proof of it.

"Jesus can carry what is worrying you because He has already carried what was meant to kill you. He has already carried your sorrows and buried them in His grave." (page 24)

And for that we praise You, worship You and thank You, Lord. We have no words to express our gratitude for what You have done and for Who You are and for the gift of Christ in Me. To You all the Glory, My Lord and My God...My King of Glory! Amen! 

Facing the Enemy

 Do you have a 911-prayer partner group? You know what I mean, don't you? The people you reach out to and contact when you are in need of emergency/urgent prayers? If you don't, I invite you to start praying that the Holy Spirit leads you to a small group of godly women that can become your prayer warriors at a moment's notice. Before I continue, I just want to clarify that by "godly" women I don't mean perfect. By NO means. No way, no how. The perfect prayer partner does not exist. By definition, the only requirement of a prayer partner is that the person prays. That's it. So, if someone reaches out to you for prayer, for the love of anything worthwhile in the world, just pray. Don't think about it, just pray.

Anyway, I just felt like I had to say that...but I digress...

When King Jehoshaphat of Judah heard that their enemies were on route to attack him and his kingdom, guess what he did? He prayed! But besides praying, he reach out to his people...and I mean ALL of his people. He proclaimed a nation-wide fast for all the people of Judah, which means that he basically called them to prayer because that's what fasting meant...that you were replacing food with prayer. An guess what the people of Judah did? Yes, they  "...came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him." (2 Chronicles 20: 4) Can you believe it? a whole nation coming together, unified, in prayer, seeking the Lord.  Boy, wouldn't that be nice to see today?

All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the Lord. (2 Chronicles 20: 13)

The King reached out to the people and they responded in mass. And guess what? Something just marvelously miraculous happened: the Lord spoke to them through those He empowered to receive and communicate His message by the Holy Spirit. He answered their prayers in a most amazing way.  He said to the people of Judah who were all gathering together in and outside the Temple:

‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’” 2 Chronicles 20: 15-17

What an incredibly reassuring reply! God knew what the people and their earthly King needed to hear after seeking Him and honoring Him...and He said exactly that:

1. He told them not to be afraid or discouraged.  Of course, that's the first thing we need to hear when entering a battle of any kind. But when God says that to us, He means it! He backs it up with action for He is Faithful and He means what He says. Then...

2. He confirmed that the battle was actually not theirs. It was His. Therefore, He would fight it. And you know what happens when we let God fight the battles, right? Well, of course, He wins! He delivers us.

However, that's not all. There is one more thing:

3. He reminded them that even though they would not have to fight this battle, they still had to be ready, march, take up their positions and stand firm to see their deliverance. They still needed to "go out and face them tomorrow." God did not magically stopped the approach of the enemy or their attack. The people of Judah still had to go and face the enemy with courage and confidence...because He was going to be there with them.  He didn't promise to dissolve the advances of the enemy. He promised to be there to face it and to defeat it for His honor and glory and for the benefit of His people.

There are some good applications for our lives, here don't you think?

When problems, trials, struggles, difficulties, battles are seen in the horizon, with vast strength and no intention of stopping any time soon:

1. Go to the Lord.

2. Send a 911 to your prayer warriors so they can lift you up in prayer and stand with you.

3. Listen to the Voice of Truth. Take time to "be still and know that He is God" and to listen to the whispers of the Holy Spirit. Quiet your heart and let Him speak to you through Scriptures, through the words of your prayer partners, through a magnificent sunset, through the cold rain, through the roar of the ocean, through the caress of a soft breeze.

4. And trust Him. Even when fear threatens to take over, recall His promises, especially the promise that He will be with you. Recall His faithfulness and all the times He has been there for you and how His promises are true and how He is the same today, yesterday and forever so we can count on Him now again.

5. Then, get ready to march on and face the enemy, to watch him be defeated.

6. Praise Him through it all! Worship for He is Worthy, like Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah did,

Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the Lord. 2 Chronicles 20: 18

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow

Praise Him, all creatures here below

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

Amen!

Thank you for Your Faithfulness, Lord. Thank You for Your saving grace. Thank You for Your deliverance. In the Precious Name of Jesus, our Redeemer who lives! Amen.

 

I'm In The Lord's Army!

Remember that fun song we probably all know from Summer Bible School and/or Sunday School? "I'm in the Lord's Army!" Just thinking about it makes me want to stand up and salute as I say: "Yes, Sir!" I remember my kids marching to its tune and doing the best they could to pretend to be soldiers...

O boy...the truth is, I honestly don't know anything about being a soldier. Nobody in my family has ever served in the military. In Dan's family, only a couple of uncles served, but it was such a long time ago and we see them so very rarely, that it is not a topic of conversation that ever comes up. Neither it is something that comes up in casual conversations with our friends who have served. So, I really don't have a clue what it is like to be a soldier. I have no clue what it really feels like. I'm so removed from that entire reality of life that my only knowledge comes from the occasional rom-com movie here and there which might portray a person in uniform.

At any rate...why am I pondering these things, you may ask...well...yesterday at church and all around me lately, really, thoughts of putting on the full Armor of God in reference to Ephesians 6: 10-18 have been surrounding me. And that got me thinking how I really don't know the first thing of how to go about it...and that got me thinking it is probably because my frame of reference is so limited. Then, this morning, I read 2 Chronicles chapter 20 and something began to click.  

In this portion of scriptures, King Jehoshaphat of Judah defeats Moab and Ammon.  King Jehoshaphat is one of the Kings in the long succession of rulers after David, whose throne was in Jerusalem, but who faced a divided Israel and the constant sin and idolatry of God's people which often caused their defeat and state of separation from the One True King, the Almighty God. In 2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat gets word that his enemies are coming to wage war against him with vast armies, and are getting nearer. Then, to my surprise, instead of approaching the problem filled with false pride and overconfidence, or instead of calling all his allies to muster a potentially bigger and more powerful army, or instead of trying to appease the the enemy, or instead of consulting the hundreds of false prophets of Baal and other idols, Jehoshaphat, in his distress and concern actually resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him. (2 Chronicles 20: 3-4)

WOW! Mind-blowing!

The first...the very first thing King Jehoshaphat did as soon as he heard about the imminent threat was to turn his eyes to the One True God...to inquire, to fast and to pray! And he didn't do it alone. He urged his entire Kingdom to do the same and they followed his example! How marvelous! Finally a King that knows what to do!!

Listen to his prayer:

“Lord, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. 7 Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? 8 They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, 9 ‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.’

10 “But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. 11 See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance. 12 Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” (2 Chronicles 20: 6-12)

There is so much in this prayer that it would take days to unpack...and maybe we should and will...but today, what hits me hard is the King's humility in recognizing that they are powerless without the Almighty. He cries out in the middle of the distress of all of his kingdom, and trusts that the Lord will deliver them. I particularly love verse 12 when he admits that they have "no power to face this vast army that is attacking us." And they "do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you." 

Isn't that the key, here? We don't know what to do...BUT...our eyes are on You, Lord, because the only thing we do know is that You are the ONLY ONE who can deliver us from whatever enemy is attacking us.  Our eyes are on You! That is the ONLY WAY to win. I don't know anything about going into battle.  I don't know the first thing about putting on my uniform or handling weapons. I have no clue how to go on the defense or offense. All I know is that I must keep my eyes on the One Who Knows. The instant I take my eyes off Him...I've already lost.

So, regardless of how impressive the enemy may seem...or how inadequate we may feel about our ability to fight it, or how poor our chances seem to be...or of how little we know about going into battle, we know what to do: pray. Go to the Lord in prayer and fix your sight on Him. Paul tells us that too, and I never really noticed it until today. In Ephesians 6: 18 right after he gets done giving us what I always thought was the last instruction on putting on the Armor of God, Paul tells us the one thing that will assure our victory in this world and the next: pray. 

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Ephesians 6: 18

I'm in the Lord's Army! Yes, Sir!

And before I get deployed into a battlefield for which I am not prepared, I'm going to make sure I get ready by letting my knees hit the ground as my eyes search the Heavens. In the Precious Name of Jesus, the One Who Goes Before Us...it is His battle, and we trust His Mighty Hand. Amen!

Reflections on the Book Winning the War on Worry

Do you work out? Well, congratulations! I admire you! Because I do not. I try to walk. I've been pretty good at keeping up with my daily walks, but, often, the weekend comes or something disrupts my routine so a few days go by without walking, and when I try to get back on the treadmill, it  feels as if I have to start all over again from zero. I mean, really? Why is that? I guess the name of the game when it comes to staying active is consistency. I have a hard time staying consistent with anything. I'm lazy and I quickly go back to my default: inactivity. 

I notice this tendency not only in my "workout" routine or lack of thereof, but also in other areas of my life. For instance, finishing a book on helping me get my worry under control. I have left the book behind instead of finishing it, and instead of being consistently applying the principles in the book...I have forgotten and gone back to what I always do: worry.

Today, for instance, has been a day of worry.  I'm worrying about medical test results. I'm worrying about my sons. I'm worrying about work. I'm worrying about the future. Worry, worry, worry...I worry I'm forgetting the lessons of this book and how I spent a good amount of time reflecting on the 4 lies of the enemy which fuel our worry...and that I'm falling back into my default: worry.

Well, I decided to take the book and read a few more pages, and this quote called my attention: "fighting back against worry is like any other training regime or discipline." There is the problem! Like with any other training regime, I lack consistency and I forget. My lazy nature gets me back to what I'm used to, so when I attempt to get back on the treadmill of training to fight worry, I feel like I have to start from the beginning again...and it is exhausting. But I have to do it. I don't want to spend my entire life worrying about what could happen. I want to feel reassured that no matter what happens, God IS GOOD! I want to rest in the knowledge that God takes care of me in every situation, and that Heaven is the goal...eternity with Jesus is my victory!

"God is Loving, Kind, Mighty in Power, Holy, Healer.  He is, and because of that truth, I can have assurance no matter what comes against me." (page 12)

So tonight, I drop my worries at the foot of the cross and I pray for consistently trusting that God is who He says He is! And that I am His Child...His Daughter...and that He is going to deliver me from worry and carry me to a place of peace, where I can consistently trust Him and put my Hope in Him who is HOPE! In Christ Name I pray.  Amen!

Praying for Autumn

My favorite stories are those that involve characters who survive the greatest of challenges against all odds.  I especially love survival stories based on real life events when actual people have endured natural or political disasters, war, violence, corruption, and all kinds of destruction, obtaining deliverance ultimately through God's grace.  Edge of my seat movies where the hero is a little David archetype facing a Goliath of a challenge are my absolute favorite!  I often imagine myself as that small person, completely defenseless, making a run for it despite the high waters, the stormy winds, the raging fires, a blanket of bullets, a tall mountain or a dark valley...making it through, guided by the Light of the Holy Spirit and protected by the cover of Heaven's Angels.  The thrill of the adventures, experienced all from the safety of my living room at home, of course, leave me with a heart full of hope on the power of good over evil.

Have any of these types of stories come to life for you? Have you experienced these events in real life? Did you ever actually need to escape danger?  Do you know anyone, personally, who has ever been that real life character trapped in a dangerous place/situation from which the alternatives were to make a break for it or perish? Do you know people who have lived through the stuff of movies, and survived to talk about it afterwards?  

Have you or anyone you know encountered those moments when the Word of God that speaks about passing through deep waters and fires goes from being a powerful image to becoming painfully real...the times when finding the hiding place where He will protect us from trouble points to a literal need for God to surround us with His deliverance?

I cannot say I have experienced anything of that magnitude. Have you?

Today, there is someone I know who is living through one of these stories. The dire circumstances of the place where God called her so many years ago, and where her heart resides, have made it impossible for her to stay and the decision to flee was the only alternative to live.  She is a daughter of our church for whom seeking the will of God and obeying His call has taken her to a most forgotten country that is currently in shambles, where chaos, utter disorder and confusion reign. She took a leap of faith and trusted He who brought her there, to deliver her back into safety.  For days, we have prayed for her safety, and will continue to do so without ceasing until she is home again, securely, out of harms way.  We hang on to His promises and claim them for we trust that all His promises are true!

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Psalm 46: 1

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life. You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes; with your right hand you save me. Psalm 138: 7

The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him. Nahum 1: 7

But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. 2 Thessalonians 3: 3

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41: 10

So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Hebrew 13: 6

My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior— from violent people you save me. 2 Samuel 22: 3

May the Divine Shepherd lead this young woman and her companions back to safety...may His army of angels keep watch over them and bring them home soon.  We Praise the Lord that the most dangerous portion of her journey is completed, and we continue praying for a happy ending to this most compelling, real life story.

Psalm 57

Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me,
for in you I take refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings
until the disaster has passed.


I cry out to God Most High,
to God, who vindicates me.
He sends from heaven and saves me,
rebuking those who hotly pursue me—[c]
God sends forth his love and his faithfulness.


I am in the midst of lions;
I am forced to dwell among ravenous beasts—
men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.


Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
let your glory be over all the earth.


They spread a net for my feet—
I was bowed down in distress.
They dug a pit in my path—
but they have fallen into it themselves.


My heart, O God, is steadfast,
my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and make music.
Awake, my soul!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.


I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.


Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
let your glory be over all the earth.

Reflections on the Book Winning the War on Worry. Lie #4

 "I have to worry.  OF COURSE I have to worry!!! If I don't worry, who will??"

This is my stance every single time that something slightly problematic may seem to be spotted in the distant future.  I worry and panic as if by worrying I could stop it from happening or control how things would turn out.  Reading the book, Winning the War on Worry is teaching me, however, that this attitude is not just a part of my dysfunctional mindset when facing problems.  This posture is actually the result of me believing a lie from the enemy that is designed to distance me from my Heavenly Father.  This position stems from lie #4: I can control the outcome by worrying.

Author Louie Giglio says that this lie from the devil tries to convince us that if we think about the situation long enough, we can control how it turns out.  Therefore, we obsess!  We think, and we concoct, and we mull over, and we visualize, and we machinate, and we ruminate until we believe we have covered all the angles and chewed it all over into a swallowable, sweet compote that goes down easily and to our satisfaction.  In reality, however, nothing is further from the truth.  By God's grace, says Pastor Giglio, the only thing we can control is how we react to things.  That's it!

Remember what Jesus asks us in Luke 12: 25-26

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

All outcomes are up to God's plan.  Worrying, on the other hand, does not accomplish anything other than the devil's plans.  Is that what we want to be doing? Helping the enemy accomplish his evil plans for our lives? Of course not! So why do we worry? We worry because we have fallen into the trap of believing that worry is useful.  And if you are like me, that mindset has been sculpted into your brain on granite!  It's our default mode.  We do it without even thinking about it.  And now, we are left with the hard work of changing our reaction to problems...which is the only thing we can control.  We have to replace worry with something else...but what?  What is strong enough to sledge hammer that granite and pulverize it? 

Pastor Giglio says, the first step is to recognize that WE. ARE. NOT. GOD!

Once we go into the worry mode and we smell the first stench of the obsession bottle opening up (remember that cologne by Calvin Klein in the 80s...sorry, I digress), we need to recognize it and pause...and say: I am not God.  I am not in charge.  I am not in control.  I don't run the show. I am simply a part of God's plan.  Yet, I know He loves me.  So I will pray, trust and obey...and release...

We pause, pray, trust and release.  OVER and OVER and OVER again.  Yes, this is not a one time deal, my friends.  You know it.  We do this once, and then we go back to our default.  So it requires us to be very intentional and to pay a lot of attention to our reactions.  Remember, we have built a granite statue to worry, like the ancient Israelites who built those Asherah Poles and statues of Baal we see in Kings 1 and 2, which they could not, for the life of everything beautiful in the world, get rid of!  No matter how many prophets God sent and how many times He spoke to them...Kings, after Kings, after Kings just could not bring themselves to destroy such idols...that is basically what we go through when trying to destroy the idol of worry that we have safely built in the high places of our inner being.

The labor is arduous and it requires constancy but most of all, it requires prayer and surrender.  Prayer that the Holy Spirit would direct our path towards a life in which worry is not our first instinct.  Prayer that Christ will give us His strength to surrender to God's plan, which, though inscrutable, it is, indeed, perfect!  Prayer that we forgive ourselves when we fall back on our worry routine, and not experience that guilt that separates, but enjoy the mercy that draws us back to the Heart of Jesus that is ALL MERCYFUL!  Prayer that we can continue to try to attempt this over and over an over again.  This is how we can open the door to the peace that Jesus promised, so it can enter into our hearts, souls and minds like a hurricane, or a gushing current, cleaning up all the gunk we've built up over the years, destroying our idol of worry...to finally allow us to breathe...and let go...and be free.  

"Of course I have to worry!"  No I do not.  Nobody has to.  It's in God's hands, whatever "it" is...He already has it worked out.  I am NOT God.  So I'm going to step down and let Him do His thing! In the Precious Name of Jesus.  Amen!

Would we say no to love because it hurts?

 Would you willingly choose to do something that you KNOW is going to cause you hurt, pain, and heartache? 

Well, the answer is yes and no.

Often, when we are absolutely certain that a decision, or an action is going to give us a most piercing affliction or unsurmountable hardship, the answer is no way! Our self-preservation instincts kick in...or should kick in, ideally, right? Sometimes I wonder, though... However, there is one thing...one decision...one action...one decision to commit to an action which we willingly embrace fully knowing it will, at some point, shatter our hearts...and that is, the decision to commit to loving someone.

The reason for this seemingly irrational determination is that otherwise, choosing to say no to love would make us part of a different species...more like a piece of furniture or a kitchen appliance...an amoeba, at best.

We choose love over and over and over again regardless of how much it may hurt, because we are humans and we need love like we need air.  Love is what sustains us and gives us well-being because He who made us is Love Himself, and when He selected us to be His, that was an act of unsurpassed love that demonstrates He loved us first and at that moment, He instilled His love in us rendering us incapable of not loving despite our "better/worldly/rational" judgment and knowledge. Easy! Not mind-twisting at all, right?!

Anyway...but seriously, how else would we ever know we even have a heart if we never get it broken?

The pain we feel when our heart aches or when it is deeply pierced due to love is what reminds us that we are alive...the deeper the hurt...the stronger the love.  Losing someone who we consider only a passing acquaintance, for example, does not destroy us the way that losing a most beloved person does.  Hearing the news that something bad happened to a kid at some distant school many miles away from us, doesn't disturb us anywhere near to the way it certainly annihilates us when that kid is ours.  The distress we experience when we are aware of the hardship of people we know of through second-hand connections is not even close to the excruciating agony we feel when the hardship falls onto a dear, dear friend.

Deep in our hearts we know, the day we decide to love someone, that it will crush us if we ever lose them.  We know with absolute certainty that the instant something horrible happens to our children (even a papercut counts here) we are going to feel it worst than if it'd happened to ourselves.  We know when our dear friends go through seriously rough patches, we travel with them and experience their pain.  We know it...we feel it...we fear it.  

When we say the vows, it is for better or for worse, until DEATH due us apart.  We walk into that union knowing death will be a part of it.  When we hold our children in our arms, we know our hearts will break, just like the heart of Jesus' Mother Mary broke, because we realize our hearts don't belong to us anymore, they are in possession of the children God blessed us with.  When we first meet our best friends whether it be at a school yard during recess when we were in Kindergarten or at a small group in college either because we were paired together to do a project or we were randomly thrown together as roommates, or met at a crazy party (not that college students ever go to parties, let alone crazy ones), or at a Bible study group at the home of a Pastor on Sunday evenings when we were starting out our Christian walk...we know that someday we will journey through the valleys of the shadows of tears with our loved ones...still...does knowing all this would ever make us turn our backs and say: no...I cannot commit to loving you because I know it will one day break my heart and I cannot have that kind of pain in my life?  

Would we say "no" to love because it hurts?  

No second thoughts. No second guessing. No regrets.  Tears and all, we willingly dive into the adventure that it is to love someone because choosing otherwise would mean traversing through life empty and barely alive.  After physiological needs, the need to belong... to love and be loved, is the most basic need of humankind! So, a life devoid of love, is not much of a life at all.  And like the song says: love hurts.  It hurts, indeed.  But that's how we know we're alive. That's the human perspective.

From a Christian perspective, it works too.  Suffering is the evidence we are walking with Jesus!  Sharing the road with Christ means sharing in His sacrifice...sharing His Cross (Galatians 2: 20 and Matthew 10: 17-20). To be a part of His Glory we must be also part of His agony...that's just the way it works. Love hurts, but without love, there is no joy...there is no glory.  Therefore, we offer our suffering back to Him to participate in His Glory at the appointed time.  

The Cross is not the goal...the goal is Christ's Glory.  Heartache and agony are not the goal...the goal is joy.  May the One Who is LOVE guide us in our necessary walks through calvary so, when the time is full, we can also partake in the joy and glory of true Love.