Really the "what's the point" question boils down to figuring out how to experience crazy love while I'm here on earth, in absence of the eternal presence of God. After listening to several sermons by people far smarter than myself, I've come to a few conclusions about how to experience crazy love, but two over-arching ideas seem to make the most sense to me at the moment. One fairly obvious, the other less obvious.
First to the obvious way to experience crazy love (which while obvious is certainly by no means simple to achieve): love God. People have a lot of thoughts to offer about this, how to do it, what it looks like to do it. Fortunately, God has already given us clear instructions on how we are to love him:
"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments" I John 5:3
To love God then, is to obey Him. But in order to obey Him you must know Him and his commandments. So the clear path to loving God is to get to know him through studying His living and breathing words to us in the Bible. Unfortunately for us and our instant gratification tendencies this isn't something that happens overnight. It happens over a lifetime, a lifetime of reading, studying, and knowing God's word. It's also not something that can happen by force. You have to choose to love God, but not because of what you might get or lose if you don't, rather because he deserves it and you recognize that in the deepest part of your soul. You want to love him because of who he is: good, loving, perfect, righteous (there are a lot of names and reasons to choose from). I'm at the beginning of this road in my own life, which after for being a Christian for over 20 years is somewhat discouraging. Thankfully is also incredibly exciting, in a way you can only really know if you open yourself up to studying the Bible and knowing God.
The other major way I think we can experience crazy love on earth is through healthy, loving relationships with believers. These can be friendships or dating relationships or marriages. And arguably the last of those three is the most fulfilling (but that's for another blog that I'm not fully qualified to write yet). God is by definition a community: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Before He created us he co-existed in a loving relationship between three beings. Love has always existed. Love is. It is beyond time, and this makes sense because as John says, "God is love."
This revelation really helped me to understand why I crave authentic Christian community so much. It's because when I'm loving on my brothers and sisters in Christ and being loved on by them I'm experiencing God. I'm experiencing existence the way God intended me to when he created me. I'd argue you can really only live a joyful, complete life by pursuing a community of loving relationships. In fact, I believe it so fully that I make loving on the people I care about the most important thing in my life. Here's the catch though, you can really only do this loving community thing if you really love God:
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God"
I John 4:7
Who or what are you loving in your life right now? If it's not God and the people you care about, it's probably pretty unsatisfying.
Great post, Em.
ReplyDeleteWe are made to glorify God-- Isaiah 43:7, "...everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for MY glory, whom I formed and made."
The Lord leads, we are obedient, He is glorified.
And He knows best where to lead and gives grace for us to obedient to His call-- in a mission field, an office, a conversation with a stranger on the metro, to singlehood or marriage-- He knows how He wants to use us to glorify Him.
Great post! The community aspect of living the Christian life is very dear to my heart. And I'm valuing the obedience more and more as well. The thing is, we need to keep ourselves ever-softened to the Holy Spirit, because His work is the only thing that enables us to obey AND to love rightly. Which is exactly why 1 John 4:7 says "born of God" - e.g. our spiritual rebirth through the Spirit! :)
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