Love. A simple, four-letter word that holds more meaning and weight than most of us can fathom in a lifetime. Love. Simple, yet so complicated.
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." -I John 4:18
Fear. Another simple, four-letter word that most of us know more intimately than love. Quite the oxy moron, right? Fear drives us to do or not do so many things. Fear often becomes a way for one person to manipulate another, and call it "love". Pretty soon what is disguised as love, no matter the context of the relationship, becomes a crumbling facade underneath slowly (or quickly) being eroded by the fast-moving waters of fear. Fear tells you that you need to lie because the people around you will think less of you if they know the truth. When in actuality, if those people truly love you, they love you for you, not your self-perceived imperfections. Fear will continue to send you up the river by making you slowly feel like you can't trust those you love with the truth of what you've done. Fear creates a cycle of abuse, often one that we inflict upon ourselves. Once we get exhausted from running around in that cycle, we give fear a new link in the chain by pulling in others. We fear being alone, or of admitting the need to let go of someone we care about, so through manipulation we reel others back to our cycle for a little while, until something else distracts us. But, we've done all of this under the guise we so flippantly call "love".
Love. Perfect love. It's NOT the kind of love fairy tales are laced with. It's not what you feel for your sweet little puppy. It's not what creates the star-crossed "love at first sight" you had with Miss Lovely or Mr. Blue Eyes from across the room at a frat party in college. Perfect love is what exists between our Father in Heaven and his children. We are charged by Him to follow his example in all of our relationships and that means loving without fear. Perfect love is when a spouse can empty their soul of all fear, lay down all mistakes, and trust that their significant other is going trudge up the steep hill they're facing, side-by-side, rather than sneaking out the door. Perfect love is when a parent lets go of a child so they can learn to stand alone. Though the parent knows they're going to falter and hurt at times, they can both trust that it is love that binds them, not the mistakes they make.
What are you afraid of? Ask yourself, WHY do you fear it? Life has many things to fear, but your relationship with God and your loved ones should not be one that incites fear. If it does, I challenge you to look into your heart and the nature of those relationships because what you are experiencing is not perfect love...therefore, you're going to remain caught in a cycle of deterioration. The only way to change that is to commit to building a shelter for perfect love to dwell in. If you can't make the next step in life because you fear the unknown, remember, it's only unknown to YOU for the time being. God sees, knows, and controls everything in his own PERFECT time. Perfect love sets you free; perfect love embraces you...all of you. If you offer "love", be respectful of its weight. Christ shed his perfect love for his children on the cross, drop by perfect drop. Then, he continued to show his love by blessing us beyond measure.
So, who have you trusted with perfect love? Or are you still fearing what that means?
No comments:
Post a Comment