Day 8: The Impossible Challenge

Yeah. . . there are a bunch of unfinished entries. I will get to them eventually (hopefully before I go up to Georgia, since I'll probably get even more behind up there).

This week is all about how to "Love as Jesus Loves You."

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This is a short but potentially life changing chapter. At the very least it has made me think. This chapter (and week I think) is how we relate to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

I think just the mere fact that we are called to love others as He loves us is mind boggling. Think about it (well, as much as you can wrap your mind around it anyway): He gave up His divinity to become a human being, deal with all kinds of people (everything from innocent to vulgar, willing to stubborn, loving to hateful) for 33 years, and then turn around and die for all of them. Are we able to love others like that? Could we give up our everything for the sake of another? As good intentioned as we might be, no one on Earth can answer that question with an affirmative response and not be lying.

So then what hope do we have? Well, the point is that we CAN'T and NEVER will be able to love as God loves until we look to have Him love through us. Jesus told us we can move mountains with faith and prayer, and that we can walk on water if we don't doubt, and the only thing that gets in the way of those things happening is (you guessed it) US. We are too busy being humans and failing and blaming our failures on power we don't have when we don't even realize that we've already figured out the answer: we don't have the power! And as long as we keep trying to do things on our own, we will keep failing. Jesus asks us to do impossible things, not because he expects us to do them by ourselves, but instead to frustrate us into realizing how much we can't do it without HIM. For me, I find that it's easy to have faith in some parts of my life, but I struggle in others. Why doesn't that transfer? Why don't I see the wonderful things God does over here and still say, "But this is different- I've got to step in and do something or it's never going to happen!" I'm starting to learn to trust Him with my relationships. I know one thing I need to be more aware of is that He sets up EVERY situation/scenario/circumstance, and each of those is an opportunity to give it over to Him and find out what He has in store, rather than me just barreling through and messing things up. Anything and everything, from running into someone at the store to working on a project to responding to Facebook messages provides an opportunity for me to let go and say, "God, love this person through me." Hopefully, through the course of this book, that kind of attitude will start to become a habit and eventually become part of my lifestyle.

For now, I am going to try and approach the rest of today remembering how impossible it is for me to be the loving person my Savior wants me to be and instead letting Him be my source of love.

Point to Ponder: Jesus doesn't want us to try our hardest; he wants us to learn to trust in him.
When it comes to relationships, what can we do but rely on the relationship master? If God had given humans His capacity to love, we wouldn't be human. Unfortunately love is one of those things that Satan twists so easily. We say we love because of an emotional response we feel, or out of obligation (for example, family or colleagues), but we forget what God said love truly is.

Verse to Remember: John 13:34- "A new command I give to you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
Command is a strong word. Must is also quite strong. This isn't a suggestion. This is something we're supposed to do. And I think once we open ourselves to the idea that God is in control of everything, it becomes a lot easier to love other people (see below).

Question to consider: How can I trust Jesus for the impossible in a relationship?
I think it takes seeing how unsuccessful we are when we try to make relationships work in our own strength to realize how much we need Jesus to take over. We might be successful for a while, but ultimately something comes up that begins to tear us apart, and then we freak out (well, at least I do, but I'm a bit of an emotional spaz). But once we start taking the focus off ourselves and what we can do, we can begin to let God work in us and through us. I think that's one thing I have seen in my relationships with the people in my Sunday School class; on both conscious and unconscious levels, Jesus is the one who has brought us together. I mean, I don't think most strangers walk into a classroom and immediately get taken into the group as if they were always a part of it, and yet I feel like that's what happened to me. Impossible? Humanly, yes. But I truly believe God was preparing them for me, and I them, because nothing else can explain why I developed those friendships. None of us are perfect by any means, but I think we all are pursuing individually our relationships with Jesus, and the encouragement and fellowship we draw from each other feeds off the mutual brotherhood we have as children of God.