Happy Birthday to me. Yay, I'm finally
25 years old. Now, I.. can.... Wait a sec. Is 25 that big of an
accomplishment? Certain people bugged me about that fact, so much so
that I was thinking it was nearly to caliber of the "right of
passage" age, 21. or was it 18? or 13? 2?
Something spectacular happens when you
turn 25: you're not 24 anymore. That's about it. Nothing else much
happens.
It's about 8am right now, as I'm
writing this, and I don't hear much fanfare, sirens, marching bands or anything
proclaiming to the world that the most important person
in it has had a major milestone pass without any complications. (Sad
how we think that way. But we're selfish creatures. Centers of our
own little universes.)
Well, there were a few complications
this past year... God threw them into my path...
God knew what he was doing. God always
does. Even when we don't. (Isn't that funny how that expression
comes to mind: "Even when we don't" know what we are doing.
C'mon. We never know exactly what we're doing. We may think we do.
We may want certain results to come of something that we're doing.
But God works all things out for our Good and His ultimate Glory.
Because He's God, and He has the power to make things happen. That
is such a comforting thought.)
But at the same time. We know that
what we're doing is usually what WE want to do. No matter what our
good, honorable, proclaimed-as-Christ-glorifying intentions are.
Speaking of intentions: a "really
good friend" of mine asked me to write about my philosophy of
love as money and a spring. (You SO know what I mean by those quot.
marks...)
Love (the genuine, healthy, pure, "love
your neighbor as yourself" kinda love) is usually thought of in
terms of money. You spend love like most people spend money. You
like something, you want it, you buy it, with your love. You decide
something is worth investing in, time spent with, imparting your self and soul to, and then you decide it's worth the risk to put aside
other things that your "love money" could be spent on and you love that
something.
Ugly. wrong. totally different idea
from what Jesus implies when he says that He wants us to love our enemies, to love those who would use you, to love those whose
greatest desire in this world is to persecute and kill people just
like you (Christians).
How easy though it is to slip into the
mindset of spending love like money. Love is NOT a commodity to be
bought and sold and lost and gained and bankrupt, and even invested
in. Love is not economics.
Love is a flowing stream. Love is a
fountain of an unquenchable, neverending, tapless spring. Love gushes forth from the depths of who you are as a person. Love like
this should be the primary indicator that a person is a Christian. If the
person does not love like this then that person probably doesn't know what true love is. (Is he even a Christian?)
True love is God's love, and God
demonstrated his deep, unfathomable love for us by lavishing Christ upon the world. Christ coated the world in his blood because he
wanted to show the world how much he loved us.
True love, the deepest, most pure love,
is a free gift. And the worth of the gift is measured by the difficulty in deciding to give it away, free of charge, with no
strings attached, with no desire to get anything in return.
God's free gift to man was Jesus, the
one who will save people from that alien degrading force called sin. My (meaning mankind's) free gift is giving away/sharing the most
important thing in the world to me: my self and soul.
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