Love

As artists like Haddaway, Jennifer Lopez, Nevershoutnever, and many others would sing, "what is love?" Is it a feeling and emotion? Is it an action? To you, what is love? You see, society tells us all too often that love is physical. That love comes and goes. That love is earned and can be used to manipulate. That love is sleeping with your boyfriend or the longing to buy that cute pair of heels you saw in the window of Macy's. Love comes in many different forms. I could LOVE pizza and tacos, but do I LOVE them the same way I love my family or friends?
Love is such a complex subject. Love is a person. Love is an action. Love is a word- a noun and verb. God is love, and when you have love for something, you are drawn to it. You can show someone love or tell them you love them. What is love? How do we show love?
We find in 1 Corinthians 13 a very detailed list of qualities of love. It is patient, and kind. It doesn't envy or boast. It is not proud, rude, self-seeking or easily angered. It keeps no list of wrongdoings against another person. "Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth." It protects and trusts, hopes and it always perseveres. And love certainly without a doubt will not EVER fail you.
But what does that all mean? Love is humble. Love, even when it is wronged, finds a way to forgive. Love never gives up. Think with me for a moment. What if we took the word "love is" out of all of that, and replaced it with "I am?" What if we took on the characteristics of love? So many times we fail people and people fail us, but it's those that we truly love that we come back to, even when we feel hurt by them. Why is that? Because love perseveres. Love forgives. Love is even-tempered.
Now, someone can say they love you, but what do they mean? If you happen to be a teenage girl reading this right now, when a boy tells you he loves you, if he says "you'll love me to if you (insert action here: change the way you dress, lose weight, have sex with him)" he's lying. Why? Because love is PATIENT. True love waits. Love is not self-seeking. If a guy (or girl) wants YOU to change to make them happy, they're not worth it. Love is accepting and kind. As we found out earlier "I love pizza" does not share the same value as "I love you." In the case with the first example, love is just a word, and society has made it meaningless.
So, how can we avoid telling people we love them without it becoming "just a word?" Simple. Sort of. 1 John 3:18- "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." We SHOW it to them. It is not enough to just say something. That's where the devil likes to come into relationships and dig at your being. Maybe you find it hard to show your love to someone. Been there, done that. People get annoying, or you'd be embarrassed by expressing love. Or your boyfriend says "if you love me then...." That action hardly qualifies as love.
You see, love is such a complicated topic that we can only be sure of one answer to the question "what is love?" God is Love.

The BE ATTITUDES (part 1)

My college group at church recently started a study on the Beatitudes from Jesus in Matthew 5. This got me thinking, naturally. When asked to discuss the "poor in spirit" and what it looks like in our every day lives, answers such as "humility" and "being thankful always for everything" were common answers. I don't know about you, but when I think of people who are poor, especially poor in spirit, I think of sad people. I think of hurting people whose lives are far from perfect. Being poor means having nothing, and being poor in spirit means lacking in spirit. People who are broken.

I thought, to be poor in spirit in every day life means to take my brokenness and give it all to God. Not ask Him to help me with the things I can control and to take care of the things I can't, but giving it all to HIM.
You see, we're broken people, and being human, we try to pick up those pieces and put them back together in a sloppy manner, often leaving us incomplete or more broken than we were before. But when we become poor in spirit before Christ, we give him our broken pieces, the pieces we've tried to make whole on our own, and the whole selves He created us as. Surrender your whole life to Christ. The good, the bad, the broken- all those pieces belong to God anyway. He was the artist who created you in the first place.

Now, you cannot tell me you're not broken. Everyone is. Everyone's been hurt. EVERYONE has sinned. We're broken humans, no matter what's happened to you in your past. For those of you who are more than broken, let me tell you something. If you've ever read the Beatitudes, you will know that with every situation, there is a blessing. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." When you give your broken bits to God, He blesses you. Even still, for so many people, it's so tough to admit brokenness. So, I want to try a little activity with you right now. I want you to tell yourself "I am a broken person and I need help."
Did you do it? Well, even if you didn't, know this: Your brokenness is beautiful. God makes beautiful things come from our brokenness. Have you ever seen a piece of mosaic artwork? Truly beautiful creations made of brokenness. What about a rainbow? It comes AFTER the rain. And gold cannot be gold until it's gone through the fire. Multiple times.

Why, you ask, does God let us go through brokenness and hardships? To shape us. To define who we are as Children of God, seeking Him for refuge. To make us more Christlike. Honestly, you don't know what you learn if you don't take the test. In order to become more Christlike, we have to go through these tests of life to teach us what we need to study more, and what strengths we have that we can improve on.
Our brokenness should not be our defining factor. What truly defines us is what we choose to do with our brokenness. Do you stuff it? Try and fix it yourself? Or do you ask for help and give it to God? He'll take your broken bits and make something beautiful if you let him.

SURPRISE!!!

It is my friend Mirranda's 19th birthday today!! Last night, after junior high group, during our post-leader meeting, our friends stealthily snuck in and hid in one of the classrooms. I had taken a pair of scissors from that room earlier, and "had to put them back." Since I was her ride home, she followed me. There was her party! She had no idea that we had been planning this all along! Naomi made THE MOST delicious/addicting cookies EVER. Then we went on a photo scavenger hunt. Many adventures were had, and it was rather funny to watch God provide in ways for this, we never thought He cared about it. Then we all met up at Shari's to compare findings (although that never actually wound up happening). We stayed there from about 1245 until about 230. (That was partly not our fault, seeing as our waitress hardly got to us.) A group of drunks came in, too. That was an interesting experience that I don't think words can describe except hilarious and scary.

Among the list of photo scavenger hunt items were these:
Go coning
Find an awkward planking spot and plank (owling is acceptable if a spot is deemed "unplankable")
Find someone who belongs on peopleofwalmart.com
Dance in the middle of the Davenport Hotel
Buy and play a scratch ticket (additional points given for winning money)
And many more...

Old Blog, New Look

Welcome (back) to my new (but really it's old) blog!! As you can see, this is the only post here. There used to be a lot more. But they're gone. Except for a few favorites. I saved those. As for me, I'm the same old me, just newly grown. Got back from Africa at the end of January. I was there for a week and a half, and, having been home longer than I was there, I already want to go back. I started college at SFCC, and it's been a roller coaster. First quarter, I had a very interesting experience in my English class, Biology was simple, and I made it into chamber choir, which I LOVE. Second quarter is close to ending, but it's been pretty good. I love my communications class, and am breezing through cross-training and economics. So, that's about all for now, I guess. Until next time (which I'll REALLY try to do better on...)