Love and Work
Some say pastors kids are wild, while others think they are the most well-behaved kids. Truth be told I was well-behaved at church and wild after Amen. I had to hide, I may still be hiding. Is it possible you also feel not well-behaved enough for Jesus? The behavior change I found out later follows complete love. I developed a face for you and a face for my real friends. Do you know what I mean? You know how you have to have a face for work and the face you put on for clubbing. The face you put on for Friday night and Sunday morning. Do you know the face? It is hard when we learn that to be loved we need to talk right and walk right. It is hard to learn that ‘love’ which has to be earned.
“Jesus loves you.”
Jesus loves you. His love for you existed before you even had a chance to do anything good or bad. He loves you 100%. Accepting this love requires only that you welcome Him into your heart. I know this love is true and real, nothing can change it I am convinced of it. All I do is talk about this love of Jesus. It has allowed me to stop running. It allowed me to stop trying to earn his tender gaze. I can have one face because he loves me. His love allows me to introduce my fake faces to each other. It allows me to be authentically me.
You may believe like I used to that believing Jesus loves me gives me carte blanche to behave immorally. True love does not knowingly hurt or abuse the one loved. The dictionary gives a general defining term for love such as deep affection, tenderness, intimacy, and attachment. I agree there is more to love than those terms but let’s go with it anyway. When I think about how much Jesus loves me and how in return I love him, it makes me think of him tenderly. I don’t act the fool because there is no reason to. No more looking for love and attention in empty places because I already have his full attention.
“I can not assume God feels about me the same way I feel about me.”
I can not assume God feels about me the same way I feel about me. I can not allow low self-esteem and self-rejection to determine how God feels about me. Now, I am not trying to convince you of the love of Jesus. I am trying to convince you to walk in it because the world is waiting. There are problems that only you can solve. You have a job to do. The sooner you allow God to answer the question of his feelings about you the faster you can join me in the field. Dear friend, Jesus loves you, he sees and knows you by your name.
“You are a solution.”
