PART 3: "Pursuit"

In light of PART 1 and PART 2 of this blog, I want to hit on the pursuit of both "Love" and "God calling us." In 1 Corinthians 13, we see how important love is. Verse 13:1 "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." When we love, we open up doors. The opportunity for healing, restoration, and new beginnings all come with the pursuit of love. When we love, we give no reason for hate or disconnect. You see, when we love, the world has no reason to push it away. One thing we can count on is that the world will always accept your love. In the pursuit of following God's calling, I think we can get wrapped up in our own happiness. We choose temporary "fulfillment" over long-term investment. When God calls us, it's because He has an eternal plan in mind. When we put off following God's plan, it does the exact oppostite of what you're trying to achieve with temporary pleasure. It leaves you feeling empty, because it's not what we're intened to do. Pursue Christ's will and pursue love because this is where true meaning and joy comes from.

Part 1: "Love"

When I really think about this word "love", I think about how many times I have failed to live up to the meaning of it. All throughout the book of Matthew, Jesus asks us to love. You hear Him say, "Love your neighbor as yourself"..."Love your enemy." Last night was a perfect example of me NOT doing this. In fact, if the opposite of love is hate, then I guess you could say that I succeeded greatly at hating someone. I guess what makes the situation even more bothersome is that the guy was even a follower of Christ, a brother. He and I did not see eye to eye on a lot of issues, and I left pretty angry with this man. But as much as I try to not want to love him, God not only calls me to love him, but to be unified with him. In John 17, Jesus is praying for His disciples to "Be one as We are One." (referring to the Trinity) When I look at it in this light, I see how foolish I was last night in acting the way I did. Not only did I not love my brother, but I was not in unity with him. I think this breaks God's heart. Maybe instead of arguing and bickering over pointless things with our brothers (and enemies for that matter), let us first remember that this completely goes against everything we're called to do as followers of Christ. We're called not just to "deal with" that person, but to love them , regardless of the situation. Be love.

PART 2: "Negotiation"

This thought crossed my mind at about 3 AM this morning when I was having a coversation with Murry about life. In Matthew 8:21, one of the disciples says to Jesus, "Lord, first let me return home and bury my father." Jesus responds with this answer..."Follow me now! Let those who are spiritually dead care for their own dead." In Matthew 4:19, Jesus sees Peter and Andrew fishing and says to them "Come, be my disciples, and I will show you how to fish for people!" Then it says, "And they left their nets at once and went with Him." My thought was this...Sometimes we hear God calling us to do something, and it's almost as if we negotiate with God. We justify not dropping everything to follow His call with the excuse of "Well, I'm going to pray about it for 2 weeks and see what God says." If Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit are One, don't you think their answer will be unified? If Jesus called the disciples to follow Him at that very instant, don't you think that when God calls us to do something that He intends for us to act immediately? The very thought of "praying about it" seems ridiculous when you look at it in this sense, doesn't it? Why is there a need to "pray about it" when you've already heard God say what He wants you to do? I'm not saying prayer isn't important. (1 Thessalonians 5:16) But maybe in this instance we should pray about what steps to take in order to accomplish what He's already called us to do. When God asks for something, He doesn't want excuses and negotiations...He wants action. Will you be like Peter and Andrew and drop everything at once, or like the other disciple who wants to get some other things taken care of "before we take off on our journey"?