Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:11-12)

The second sentence of Hudson’s devotion for today says, “If we wait for loving feelings, we may never get around to actually loving.”

Aside from every word in the Bible, were truer words ever written?

Because…
Raise your hand if you’ve ever found it hard to love someone.
Raise your hand if the difficulty in loving someone has become more pronounced in the last 12 months.
Raise your hand if your idea of loving someone has ever rubbed up against someone else’s idea of being loved.

I get it. I’m with you. I’ve had some tough conversations this past year, made some tough defenses in honor of people I love. I’ve had to spend time choosing to look at the human and the heart behind people’s ideologies. I’ve had to spend time choosing to look at the human and the heart behind some actions. I’ve had to spend time choosing to look at the human and the heart behind some truly, truly terrible Facebook and Instagram posts.

That warm, fierce, fresh & tough love C.S. Lewis mentions, though — that is the love that a) lives within us since God lives within us; and b) is the kind that makes looking past different ideologies, hurtful actions, and horrible Facebook posts possible.

We have the chance to bring heaven to earth when we love one another. Really love one another. In spoken and written word, in deed, in the examples we set for our children and for our spouses and for our friends.

We have a chance to work on the complete work God wants to do within us—not the perfect work, but the complete work—when we choose to love. Not loving out of self-righteousness that places us above the other person. Not loving out of selfish gain that gets us what we want. Not loving so that the recipient will change his/her mind. Not loving out of desperation or fear or loneliness. Instead, recognizing that we have the capacity to love because God loves us and lives in us. We look and reach inward to that complete and whole love, then take out the abundance and share it.

In parenting, that means getting up in the middle of the night for the 354984513th time and singing a lullabye.
In marriage, that means being quiet when your opinion changes nobody’s mind but stings your spouse’s heart.
In friendship, that means checking “rightness” at the door and walking forward with your friend, in love and not in judgment.
In social media interactions, that means looking for the human behind the righteous keyboard warrior.

Love is warm - it keeps us feeling safe.
Love is fierce - it holds tight.
Love is fresh - it refreshes the soul.
Love is tough (as nails) - it cannot be easily swayed.

Let’s live those out. Let’s combine C.S. Lewis’ poem and 1 John 4:11-12, and show our home and beyond what it really and truly looks like to love and to be loved.

How about you? Email me & tell me what’s tough for you when it comes to this kind of love.

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