Tag Archives: God’s Love

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Waking Up From A Long Winter’s Nap

Or, The Time I Got Over My Amnesia and Remembered I Had A Blog. Just kidding. I never, not for one second of every day forget I have a blog. I do, however, periodically allow The Idea of my blog to beat me up a little bit and shut me up. Certainly when I started this journey I had ideas and expectations of how blogging would work, things I wanted to write about and how that all would look in the well-polished world of the internet. And of course it was all ice cream, rainbows, and unicorns in my mind.

Unfortunately, I underestimated how uncomfortable I am at times with my own thoughts and ideas as they play tug of war with my most closely held beliefs. In the past few months, I have started to ask questions of epic proportions (to me) that are causing radical paradigm shifts for me. (I sincerely hope that didn’t sound scary, but in a way it has been). As I’ve been dialoguing with friends about these things, praying about them, reading about them, studying them, I have been EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE!!!! But in a good way, because what I am learning more and more is that the Gospel really is MUCH BETTER GOOD NEWS THAN I EVER IMAGINED!

I have lived my life in a very carefully constructed world of absolutes that are now being obliterated in almost every way imaginable. Don’t worry, Jesus is still non-negotiable for me. His Word, Scripture, is still non-negotiable for me. The unconditional love of God is more real and important to me than it’s ever been. While they are foundational to everything I believe, they are also the flies in the ointment of my religious constructs. I am coming face-to-face with how my own experiences, culture, family background and pre-conceived ideas have limited/shaped my beliefs and then how I lived my life. AND I AM VERY UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THAT!

In fact, I have been so uncomfortable with it that I have felt very inhibited in sharing in this space. I feel total freedom to ponder deep paradigm shifting ideas. I feel very free to ask questions. But I am cognizant of the power of words and the enormous possibility of being misunderstood while I am in the middle of all of my messy processing.

So instead, I have been silent.

Fear that my mess might be misunderstood or judged has kept me from openly expressing my thoughts. For me these ideas are so life altering that they are certainly going to ooze out here in the blogosphere. To me that’s frightening.

My husband looked me in the eye last week (while we were sitting in the middle of a car dealership, buying a car – we have deep conversations in the strangest places) and said, “Kim, stop being afraid of failing and just go for it.” I couldn’t help but wonder, “What if I say something you don’t agree with?” The salesman came back in and I forgot to ask.

I knew God was speaking to me through Popey. He’s said it in several other ways, too. While I am uncomfortable with all this paradigm shifting, the Truth is there’s a ton of freedom in it. There’s more peace than I’ve ever felt. I feel like I understand what Jesus meant when He said, “My burden is easy and My yoke is light.”

So, The Idea of my blog, you know, the ice cream-rainbows-unicorns version has been shattered. I’m just going to show up, in the middle of my process (whatever that is today and whatever that may be tomorrow), share what’s on my mind, and invite you into the discussion in the comments.

In case there was any doubt, I have absolutely nothing figured out. But I am committed to this journey with Jesus and with you. Amen.

How is God speaking to you right now?  Are you always comfortable when He’s working love and freedom into your life? How does it impact others around you?

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Well, It’s A Little Bit About Us

In my last post, It’s All About Him, I talked about how abundant living is believing and trusting God is Who He says He is and will do what He says He will do.  And I also said, “…even though God includes us in the story and invites us to partner with Him in the story, IT’S NOT ABOUT US and the outcome does NOT depend on us.  It all depends on God, His infinite Love, amazing grace, and His Sovereign plan.”

I wanted to follow up on this a little bit because while all of that is true, I don’t want to create a sense of God being distant.

Have you ever asked yourself, “What’s the upside for God?”  Well I have.  My close friends know that for the last couple of years I have said this many, many times.  And while most of the time I was being sarcastic and funny (I know, you are shocked) I truly wanted an answer.  I truly wanted to find the purpose in all of this for God.

Back to my question…do you get my point?  I mean really, from the very beginning, Genesis chapter 3, our story is one of disobeying and rejecting God.  Even in a perfect world, the Garden of Eden, we rejected Him and His plan.

This is our story, Love reaches out to us and we reject Love.  So what does He get out of all of this?

If you back up further, I think there’s a question that comes before, “What’s the upside for God?”  I think the first question is, if God is Omniscient (and He is), “Why did He set all this in motion in the first place?”

I think Jesus told us the answer when He met Nicodemus…God so loved.  The God who is Love, the Triune God, who lived in perfect community with Himself (the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit) loved so much that He wanted to express that love and multiply it.  Love created us to love us and for us to be so loved that we would multiply that love in all the earth.

Love creates, Love expresses, Love needs an object.

We were created to be loved by Love Himself and to express that love.  And that is how it becomes about us.  We are the creation and object of His love.

But He knew we would reject Him.  He knew we would reject Love instead of receiving it and living it.

So again, why?  Because He is Love regardless of what we do, whether we love Him in return or not.  He continues to be Love and to Love.  He is the definition of unconditional Love.

As believers in Jesus Christ, reigning in life is allowing the Love of God in us, that Love that created us, saves us and transforms us from the inside out, to reach out to others.  It’s exactly what God said to Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and multiply.”  It’s the same thing Jesus said to His disciples, us, “Go make disciples.”  Jesus also said, “Love one another as I have loved you.”

How did Jesus love us?  Unconditionally, fully and completely.  He gave all of Himself for us, knowing not all of us would receive it.  Knowing in fact that many would reject His expression of love and refuse to be the object of His love.

For those of us who receive Him reigning is receiving Love and then in turn loving.  It’s allowing Love, Jesus in us, to create through us, that same Love in us to express itself, and that same unconditional Love in us to love others, the objects of His love, even if they reject Love.

And that, I believe, is how it’s about us.