Love on!

The other day one of my acquaintances asked if I'd be interested in taking some of the supplements they are taking, touting just how wonderful they made her feel. I am not a big "taker" of stuff, taking only the stuff I need to take to be 'in balance' with my blood pressure, cholesterol, and the like. I find that to be quite enough! We are always looking for the things in life that truly make a difference - from supplements to the latest self-help book. If we observe a product at the market that will make life easier - we buy it. If we hear of a new tool that will remove the tightest of bolts - we put our faith in it. If we come across a book that announces the quickest way to lose ten pounds - we shell out the money to learn how. Why? We want what others have come to believe is the 'greatest' answer to our current need!

If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Philippians 2:1-4)

The most 'promising' of inventions and craziest of promises excites us and causes us to plunge head-long into believing they will make a huge difference in our lives. Yet, when someone begins to speak to us about the love of God, we can find ourselves shutting down. We give excuses for why God could never love us because of what we have done, why his love doesn't matter to us because we are too busy with other things right now, or how his love is too hard for us to grasp because it is given even when it is not actively sought. We miss the point of how deeply his love affects those he embraces - simply because we don't understand his unconditional love. It is possible to miss out on something not really all that crazy, and kind of overwhelmingly awesome, all because we don't understand it!

There is far more to living this life in Christ than simply trusting in him - there is an expectation that his life will have deeply impacted us in our relationships with each other. The stuff that really matters will be 'made better' because of his touch in our lives. Christ's love in our lives brings us into community with those of similar character and identity as us. God uses "community" to accomplish so much in the way of growth in our lives - exposing us to things about ourselves that we wouldn't realize otherwise. We cannot escape the "value" of being related with others of similar character - those who share the identity of Christ in their lives. Within community, we are challenged to face our real self, move beyond the mundane, and to come into new areas of growth. That is what love does - it moves us. It is not content to see us "unaffected" by life - love wants to see a response. God places us in community to give us ample chance to see the response of others to the love of God - all the while learning from their examples.

Through his love, we can learn how to agree with each other - we are not talking "world peace" here, but a true ability to view another as a valuable part of God's creation - of greater worth than any of the latest or greatest of fads, supplements, or 'offered' solutions out there. His love in our lives is meant to be continually reproduced in the lives of others. Love that is modeled is able to affect someone much deeper than love that is merely in reflected in words. Agreement is really making a way for the individuality of each person. It is being willing to accept instead of allowing people's short-comings or differences to become a stumbling block we get tripped up on all the time. We stop focusing so much on socioeconomic status, the color of our skin, or the level of education one achieved. We focus instead on what we have in common - the love of Christ.

His love is what helps us maintain proper perspective of our own worth - we are valuable citizens of his kingdom, but interestingly, we are not more highly valued than our fellow brother or sister. When his love guides our actions, we do less "fronting" of our own worth and more "elevating" of the worth of one another. This adds to the agreement within a community. When God's love is given the proper perspective in our lives, it affects the community in which we live. His love is no "fad" that promises one thing, but sadly disappoints. In fact, his promises are true, perfectly orchestrated to meet each need of our heart, and are a solid foundation for us to place our trust in. His love is no "fast fix" to life's woes, but it is a consistent "fix". Nothing is more consistent than his love - nothing conveys consistency in our lives more than his love manifested in us. So, love on! Just sayin!

Do I measure up?

There is much written in the letter to the Roman church to describe the conduct becoming of a child of God. There is also this idea of the futility of trying to impose your way of believing on another individual. Sometimes we find there are certain issues at hand in the church causing the members to be at odds about some 'doctrine' or another. It could be the 'age-old' argument of 'is this right for you to do' once you become a Christian, or it could be much deeper, such as what does the Bible say about a certain 'hot topic' in culture today. It could even be if we are free to worship this way, or if there is another 'more acceptable' way in which to worship Christ. It seems there are always individuals trying to impose "rules" into the relationship they have come to experience in Christ - bringing freedom of heart and soul into the bondage of rules and rituals instead of allowing grace to break one free from the need for 'ritualistic worship'.

Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don't impose it on others. You're fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. But if you're not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe—some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them—then you know that you're out of line. If the way you live isn't consistent with what you believe, then it's wrong. (Romans 14:22-23)

We have a responsibility to cultivate our own relationship with God - not imposing it on others. This may seem contrary to the idea that we are called to share the gospel message with those who have not heard it. In actuality, what our passage is driving at is the idea that we cannot share the message of freedom in Christ if we are still living in bondage to certain 'forms or rituals' in our lives - there is an inconsistency in what we are saying and doing. It isn't that the 'rules' are bad, or that the 'rituals' are incorrect - it is that we seem to focus on the rules or rituals MORE THAN we are focusing on the relationship we cultivate with Christ.

For most believers, we start our Christian walk with a whole lot of inconsistencies in our pursuit of holiness. We believe with all our heart that we are free from our past, but we hold onto something we somehow believe we just cannot let go of right now. Past hurt becomes an influencing factor by which we interpret present day events. Jesus proclaimed we are free from that past hurt. We "say" we believe that we are free of it - but our behavior reveals that we are still responding to that past hurt (either in our expression of bitterness, regret, or mistrust; or in our inability to step out in newness of faith in that area).

Mind, will and emotions all play a part in what we "hold onto" from our life prior to Christ. It is only to the degree we submit the mind, will and emotions to the influence of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God that we will be transformed. Congruent behavior is based on consistency - all the pieces aligned in our lives. When there is a lack of agreement in what we say compared to what we do, we struggle with feeling like we aren't making any progress in our Christian walk. The fact of the matter is that there ARE inconsistencies in our daily character - mind not agreeing with emotions (we think one way, but respond another); spirit not agreeing with will (we are prompted to do one thing, yet act totally contrary to what we are prompted to do). This is the truth for ALL of God's children - there is a continual struggle with having our actions align with our beliefs. No one is exempt from this challenge.

There is a need to bring those inconsistencies frequently before God - asking him to align the parts of our character that are not in total agreement. Through his Holy Spirit and his Word, he gives us the tools that begin to affect our mind (helping us adopt the right way of interpreting life); align our will with his (giving us stability in our motivations); and to dissuade us from relying on our emotions to interpret what we see or feel in life (providing us congruence between what we believe and how we respond to it). Since the struggle of living "aligned" or "consistent" lives is common to all mankind, we must bring our struggle to the ONLY source for congruency - Christ Jesus. As I indicated above, mind and will come into alignment, followed by our emotions. We often get this backward - wanting to "feel" changed before the work is really "final" within us. The mind must be assured, the will must be submitted, and the emotions will follow.

Ask God today where there are inconsistencies in your character - what is it that you are "saying" (believing), but are not "doing" (acting)? When he exposes those areas in your life, trust him to align those areas with his Word, even when you may not "feel" fully or totally "aligned" yet. Congruent behavior is a matter of a yielded heart - mind, will and emotions fully surrendered to his control. The change will come - you just need to remain committed to the steps you know are right for you to follow! Just sayin!