People in this world are hurting. People want to be loved. No, people need to be loved. Love may not make the world go round, but it certainly is the driving factor behind everything we do... Or so we once thought. Many of us have been hurt by people we love, so we decide it's not worth it to feel this little four letter word anymore. We've instead decided to live like machines. We have this beautiful, beating heart that pumps blood through our organs to keep us alive, but many of us have given up on what it really means to be alive.
We pull away from people in hopes that we won't be hurt anymore. We let these perfectly beating hearts shrivel up and die inside of us, figuratively speaking. We decide we are fine doing this thing called life on our own, and we stop caring about others. We pour ourselves more into our jobs and hobbies and daily work to "appear" busy and driven and independent so that others will think we've got it all together in our lives. We have lived for ourselves just long enough to believe the lie that we don't need anyone's help or we don't need to get too close to people. We don't want them to think that we need them in any way, because that would appear weak. No one wants to appear weak.
The new American dream is to have it all together, and to have done it on your own. The independent life looks good. To not rely on anyone else, is strength. But the reality is, that we want to be loved and share those amazing moments in life that give us a pure joy that we long for as humans. But, because we have been hurt and don't trust people, we allow our hearts to harden, with no relief of letting the good in.
We have placed our hearts in things that fail. We place our hearts in the hands of humans, who are capable of hurting us and leaving us alone. We decide that if we cannot receive the same love that we put out, then we will just stop giving it out. We will stop caring. If others don't care, why should we? We lose that light inside to do good and to love others based on how other people live their lives and their reactions to ours.
Guard your heart. Know that this world is full of bad and hurt and pain, but make the decision to protect your heart. A hard heart leads to death of a bright and shining life. If we are alive long enough, we see that people will rip each other apart. They will step on each other to get where they need to be. Choose to be different. Choose to lift someone up today and show them love, because chances are, they once had a perfectly beating heart full of love, but someone crushed it. Don't be a part of stomping out the good fire, but help bring someones heart back to life by showing them that someone actually cares.
It is very clear in our world today that everyone disagrees with everything we stand for. People are so different than us. Perhaps people are so different than us and disagree with all that we stand for so well, that our own hearts are put to the test. When someone down right throws your beliefs or morals under the bus, our human reaction is to fight back. If we can't beat them, then let's join them. Let's see who can be the ugliest and who can have the most rotten of hearts. Misery loves company.
I don't want a hardened heart. I don't want to live a cynical life. I don't want to think that people are bad. I don't want to miss the whole point of life. I don't want to overlook the goodness in all people. I don't want to hate people who are different than me. I will not be threatened when someone believes in something that I don't.
What I do want, is to love. I want to give love and I want to be loved. That is what the Gospel is all about. It is easy to love people who are not a threat to me and who agree with everything I say and believe. It is truly difficult though, to love people who completely disagree with everything I stand for. But I am not doing this on my own. I am loving through a strong, Godly love that is more powerful than any love I could muster up on my own. I have placed my heart in the hands of a Mighty God who loves me completely and who also loves every single person on this earth just as much as He loves me. He holds the world, and every single person in it, in His Mighty hands.
There are enough people out there criticizing and pointing fingers. Maybe we need to trust God better with our hearts so that we are free to love more. Maybe that's what Jesus was talking about when he wrote out the greatest commandment in the Bible...
He answered: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself'."
You have answered correctly, "Jesus replied. Do this and you will live". -Luke 10: 27-29
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