There’s something I try to remember consciously as much as I can. It is that this earth is only a road and this road leads somewhere better for me. That this journey may be crooked but my end is a sure deal. It’s a certainty. No two ways about it. So when the storms rise and the sun refuses to shine, I try to remember that in the end, it isn’t the things that are done to us here that matter but the things we manage to get done here, the things we do to make the journey a bit easier for those around us.
However, when we are sunk in many personal issues and worries, it is so easy to forget all this. It is so easy to not remember that there are people around who need a relief off of their own burdens. Indeed, it’s unbelievable what extreme suffering can do to a person’s empathetic and sympathetic sides.
Some time ago, amidst having just so much not going smoothly in my own life, I saw myself gradually become a selfish, self-engrossed, only self seeking person. I didn’t as much bother about people’s issues. In fact, I didn’t want to hear of them. Because why should I care? Because were they there for me when I needed them? Because in this life, every man for himself and God for us all. Because my issues were just too much to add other people’s.
Writing this now reminds me also of the people I was led to reach out to but blatantly refused because ‘my own Christian life wasn’t yet set so how could I try to help someone?’ How could I intend to water a field when mine seemed withering? I had forgotten all I wrote in that first paragraph. I had forgotten that the container used to serve others always has remnants left over in it. I had forgotten that it is in watering, you get watered. That you are the best person to be that person you once needed to the one in need now. I had forgotten that it is more blessed to give than receive. That we are called to a life of laying one’s life down, one’s problems, one’s successes, one’s needs, all down for another’s. That we are called to love. Not as our senses deem fit. Not as our emotions allow us. But as Love loves.
Can we even take a moment to re-evaluate our standard for this thing called love? Can we for a moment ask ourselves if it’s just a convenient four letter words that pops up in a conversation to make the other feel a certain way and maybe do a certain thing. What has happened to the other side of love? The other side where we give without counting the cost, knowing fully well that even if all we have at the end of the day are losses, we’ve gained because we, as unworthy as we are, have somewhat shared in the sufferings of Christ. We have somewhat shared in His love that wasn’t scared to give, wasn’t scared to pay sacrifices it never owed.
My Friend Eli said, we Kindle the fire of love and then turn away when the heat begins. I believe we do mostly because we have no idea how hot the heat could get after kindling the fire and some of us probably aren’t even aware that during the heat, love remains. That the heat is like an incubator that cultures love till it grows and consumes our entire beings. Till all we are is soaked in love and all we have is love and so all we can give is love. In its most unadulterated form.
Turning the tables a bit, a lot of us also have little or no idea what to expect from love. We are treated in dishonourable ways yet we keep our mouths shut because at the end of the day, those four letters, those three words are flung at our faces like they are the balm to our sore hearts and bruised souls. We are needy. We are empty. So we seek even the counterfeit of the original just so it could be as though…. Just so there’s something, someone in there. Just so the space isn’t vacant. Because we fear the vacancy more than we fear our hearts being occupied with pain, fear and sadness.
But thankfully, whether we are under loved or we under love, we all need one thing. We all need to know and grasp the standard for this thing called love. We all need to first, accept love from Love Himself so we know what Love is and what it isn’t. Then we need to learn of Him the right way to do this, learn of Him the way to love like He did. He is the right standard for the Love we proclaim. Not our past experiences. Not how we’ve been treated . Not what our emotions suggest. Only Him and how He loved. The self – sacrificing, self – giving way.
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As you ponder on that, Please Listen to my first released spoken word rendition by following the link below :
God loves you crazily.
MercyMax!!!
Voice It! 