Learning of Love

Love can be such a mystery.  It can raise our hearts up to the highest peaks  of joy and hope.  Miraculously it can give us strength to keep going through the toughest of circumstances.  Yet, at the same time, it can bring us the greatest pain and sorrow.  However, of all the emotions we face as humans, love can be the most difficult to fully understand.  For me, it is love that most points to the truth of Gods existence.  It cannot be explained by the evolutionist.  Love is the greatest gift God gave His creation. Yet, it is the area of greatest brokenness in this fallen world.   I John 4:8 tells us, He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is Love. 

            For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life John 3:16.

            We are born with a need for love, as well as a desire to love and be loved.  Often it drives us, pushes us, and even breaks us.  Yet, do we really understand love?

In Search of Love

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Often in our society, that what is true is relative to how we, as a society, choose to believe.  We are told that justice, goodness, morality all are relative to how our social norms at the time; based very much upon our feelings.  Yet, if that were the case, nothing is true, and everything is relative.  Basing truth upon my own inner compass or societies compass, can lead to constant fluctuations, chaos, and social norms based on the lie that “I” am the most important.  How I feel at any given moment becomes the basis of what is true for me.  But can that be truth?

In fact, did not Hitler lead an entire society to believe in the superiority of their ideologies, making genocide of the Jews a good thing.  He truly believed this to be true; but, alas we know the horror of that reliance on self to determine what is right.

The terrorists who plunged an airplane into the twin towers believed what they were doing was for the better good of all.  They gave their own lives in the process for what they thought was true.

So, if truth is relative, then how can we ever condemn the atrocities of slavery, injustice, murder, terror, or abuse?  There must be that which is true and that which is false, for without truth there can be compass.  The same must be true in my daily decisions and with my relationships.  If there is one thing I learned through living with Mom and Pete in their bipolar worlds, it is this:  I cannot rely on my own emotional compass to determine or know what is true.  Instead, I would need to seek truth outside of me from the only true source of all truth: God.

3 Lessons from God Concerning What is True

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Jesus has called us to love one another, even as Jesus Christ loved us. (John 13:34).  He loved the Pharisee who spit on his face, the roman guard who beat Him, His brother who called Him crazy and those who stood to mock Him at the foot of the cross.  In His most painful moments on the cross He prayed, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing” (Luke 23:24).  Jesus came as a humble servant to serve and to die that we, deserving of death might live (Matthew 20:28).  Angry, unforgiving spirits have no place in the life of a believer who fully understands that their own forgiveness came at such a price.  When we lay aside the Pride Causing Unforgiveness, only then can we love as Jesus loved.  So, what are the steps to erasing the negative tapes playing in your head?

1. Plunge 

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Whenever we find ourselves in a situation where we are filled with anger, frustration. Then, we find our words and deeds demonstrating un-Christlike behavior; what do we do?   Unfortunately, typically we excuse ourselves for not being able to forgive someone.  We may even try to say that our anger is justified as righteous indignation.  After all, they have hurt us so deeply that we believe we have the right to be angry.  We have blurted out words that are meant to hurt or injure them in the same manner they have hurt us.  Furthermore, search for evidences to prove that we are right in our anger and bitterness.

We may even pray and try to lay the anger at the cross, seeking forgiveness; yet, within the next few hours, once more, the evidence of our unforgiving heart blurts out some statement or proof that we are right in our anger.   Pride stands in the way of our seeing the truth. Yet, the truth of God softens hearts and teaches us to forgive.

When these cruel words once more pour from our lips; we recognize that we have not truly dealt with the issue.  Instead we have only tried to cover it up.  We realize that deep within the recesses of our heart there stands a much bigger issue that we have not dealt with.  So, perhaps, the better question would be instead of what do we do; what can I do that will result in my fulfilling Ephesians 4?

Ephesians 4: ³¹ Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:³² And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Learning God’s Truth to Forgive Mom and Truly Love

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