on love as a career...

The last few days, my heart has been restless with the idea of love. Lots of thoughts and lots of tears have greeted me each morning as this idea permeates throughout each piece of me.

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Love is the fullness of God...

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On Sunday, the story of Hosea and Gomer was spoken over our congregation. I love the story of Hosea and Gomer; it’s uncomfortable, gritty, raw, and personal. As a synonym for God and Israel, Hosea and Gomer paint the picture of a relentless, unconditional, overwhelming kind of love. Hosea and God choose Gomer and Israel every single time. There is no wavering. To love someone despite their choices, despite their harlotry, despite them not choosing you, is hard. And that is us as the church, as God’s people; God chooses us and we choose the others. We run hard to other things, and no matter who you are or where you find yourself at this moment in life, we all have a desire to run. We are prone to wander with every sunrise and every sunset.

Hosea and Gomer.

God and Israel.

There is love that came for us.

It is liberally given and left without condition. Love is the fullness of God and the currency of His kingdom, and we are to spend it frivolously on others. There should be no limits, conditions, or boundaries. Who are we to place limits, whether by my own fear or by my apparent standard of who is deserving. And I think that’s huge… Fear. It’s the biggest road block and hindrance not just for us as individuals, but as a corporate, collective people. My fear limits the way that I love; I am too scared to really love, to really risk, to really invite rejection in. I am assuming that you might feel that same way. We want to be the Hosea, but we fear the Gomer.
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My fear limits the way that I love…

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Love begets love. If you love others, it gives them permission, in a sense. When you love others, they believe that they are capable of being loved and capable of loving those around them. And, I think it is powerful to be the person that defines love for another; so many of us walk around with heartache and pain and fear because we have not been loved well by family, friends, etc.

Be interested in people because they are interesting. Ask people to movies and dinners because you want to include them. Take someone to coffee so that their cup and heart might overflow with warmth. Dig deep into people, support them, love them.

Love people relentlessly; it doesn’t matter if you are the first or the last or the friend or the person. Love them. Love them all. This must be my thing, this must be what I am known for; I need to make a career out of loving people well.

Let’s stop being so fearful to love.