Take Me Where Your Heart Is

 "Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward." -Thomas Merton 

Everything I've learned about love throughout my life has been through experience-trial, error, a little success, and lots of failure. Love is one of those things you can't learn or be by watching. It is an active, all hands-on, mind, soul, heart, and body invested, vulnerable immersion. Sometimes it feels like the biggest, warmest hug ever, and sometimes it leaves you completely shattered, tear-stained and broken, but the end result doesn't change. It's still love at the end, because love will always have its way. So was it really failure? Maybe the desired outcome wasn't what I expected, but love did its job while it was there. 1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails. 

As people, we can be fickle, narrow-minded, impatient, downright rude, and do I even need to say this-not always loving or even well-intentioned.  Sometimes we rely selfishly on our opinions and our "feelings" instead of doing and saying what is right.  We're not exactly reliable when it comes to following our hearts or even our brains! We've gotten ourselves lost so many times even the best GPS couldn't get us out! We make so many faux pas when it comes to relating with others. We can be sizzling hot messes at times. Prideful, angry, egotistical, right-fighting, unloving dolts. 

But we were created by God because he wanted us-these completely imperfect beings. We were created by and for love, and Jesus died for us because He loved US. That is an amount of perfect love we cannot even grasp or measure. And even after all that, our imperfect love has a purpose too, and a great one at that. So even if we make mistakes in love, it can still turn out good because love has redemptive qualities, and we can show vulnerability through those mistakes. When we let our guards down and put our hearts on the line, we can allow God to be seen through our messes.  When we love like Jesus, it's a beautiful example of what God had in mind for us, because it reflects His love for us, and shows others how to love too. 1 John 4:7-9  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 

Loving people can actually come fairly easy, but sometimes liking them can be another story! I mean, just smile at me, and I will immediately like you. Make me laugh and it's instant love! Most of us are pretty easy to win over.  It's the human part of us that looks to common interests and shared values to bond us together, and then we become friends. It's so easy to love our friends because they are like us, and it's not work to accept them. But we weren't asked to just love our friends. We were commanded to love people we don't like, and that includes enemies, and those horrible people "out there." Matthew 5:44-46 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?

There are some things people do that are heinous and terrible, and we shrink at the thought of them, let alone loving people like that. What does it look like to love one another when we are clearly living in a world full of evil? All I know is that the first One to put evil to rest was the love of God. If we are to love like Christ, then it makes sense to be compassionate when given the opportunity to love in those difficult situations. We have to remember that we are not alone in fighting the evil in the world. Ephesians 6:10-11 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.  I probably say this too much, but our job is not to judge and prosecute other people. It is to love people, and when we do that, we are in a better position to change situations and help what is going on around us. Judgment only creates rigidness, where love creates flexibility, opportunity, and action. I hate evil and wrongdoing just as much as anyone does, but the source of evil should be our main target. Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 

Do you love people who don't love you back? I think most people can think of someone, whether family or friend, who we continue to reach for, and they prickle at our attempts. We can still love someone, even if it's not returned, because we were created to love, and love is at its heart, goodness and kindness. It doesn't matter if it is unwanted or unreturned, because the act of loving is something we are and not something we do. We don't give love to someone to get something back, and if we are, then we need to reevaluate. If we're wanting returns on all our love investments, it has become conditional at some level. If pure love is always in our heart, we will always walk away having been what we set out to be, even if we walk away empty-handed or alone. We can still "seek the good of the one loved" and keep them in our prayers, even if they aren't in our physical lives.  Hey, did I say it was easy? 

My "first love" just dumped me one day without an explanation. I wanted to scream, "Hey, wasn't I even worth a goodbye?", but I eventually accepted God's decision. Real love is respectful. Compassionate. I wasn't ever going to find it there. It took too long for me to forgive, but love does that too. Love is calm, deep, and soft-hearted, so that we can have the ability to forgive when it is hard. Love transforms us into gentler, more humble people, and gives us the confidence to be good to those who aren't good to us. Forgiveness allows us to move on and love again too, in due time.  That's how powerful love can be, if we allow love to live fully into our hearts. If we allow God completely into our lives. Luke 10:27 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 yourself." 

I believe love is its own reward, and I am also a subscriber of "it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." I've sat through enough weddings and funerals to experience the depths of these transformations of love. At a recent wedding, the officiant spoke such powerful words of the union of love, that I actually felt the presence of God right there in the building. God IS love. He is there in the covenant of the sweet marriage of two young souls. At the memorial service where grief hangs, heavy and deep. He is everywhere, whether we are rejoicing or in sorrow.  Ephesians 3:17-19 And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 

Love should always make you better. It should always bring out the best version of you. It is self-disciplined, doing the right thing even when it's hard, and is honest and kind. It is compassionate, thoughtful, considerate, willing to listen and willing to communicate and comprehend, and determined to seek peace in all situations. Love is patient and it is persistent. While it may retreat, it never gives up, because love loves even when it isn't loved. It is trusting and protective of itself and its own, and protects others. Love admits mistakes, corrects them, and seeks forgiveness as well as forgives.  Love will sacrifice without a second thought. Love wants you to be closer to God. Love believes actions but has little faith in words. Love is patient and love never fails.  (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8)

Butterflies in Bloom

 But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. 

Job 12:7-10

As spring finally makes its slow arrival here, I am eagerly awaiting the fluttering of butterflies on my lilac blooms. It always seems to take forever for spring to get here, and then another eternity for summer. It always seems like we just get our pool open and it's already time to close it down for fall. The seasons are feeling shorter and shorter, and I don't know why that is. When I was a child, summer felt like it went on endlessly, and so did a long, hot day at the beach. Now I'm watching the days fly by and my life go along with it, and trying to hold on to every moment like it's my last. When I finally start seeing butterflies on the lilacs, it feels like all is right with the world! 

 I remember a beautiful day at the beach in Petoskey when suddenly I found myself the target of an enamored butterfly. It was fluttering around me, so I put my hand out to it, and it landed on my finger and then gently flitted around my face and shoulders. We all went silent, just watching it play with me and my joyful reaction.  This was one of those moments that I wanted time to stop, and every time I look at those pictures, I just sink into that feeling of joy. 

People say butterflies are a sign that a loved one who passed is visiting. I'm not sure I think that, but I would like to think God gives us moments in nature to heal our souls, and if a visit from a butterfly is what brings us joy, then He will use a butterfly. 

I've been thinking about the life cycle of a butterfly and all the steps it must go through in order to become a beautiful winged creature. A butterfly lays it eggs on a leaf that must be undisturbed long enough to become a caterpillar, then the caterpillar needs to eat and then transform into a chrysalis. It must be completely still so predators will leave it alone, and then it will eventually emerge as a butterfly with beautiful wings. Even after this, the wings need to dry and harden to ready it for flight.  This metamorphosis takes about 3 weeks, but so much can happen between each stage, it's amazing butterflies survive at all. 

There is a metamorphosis of people that we don't see as well. If you were to read some of my earlier writings, you may have one impression of me. If you read something I wrote from two years ago, you may have another. But if you read something from last month, you may get yet another. This doesn't mean I'm wishy-washy in my convictions, but it does show I'm capable of growth and change. I may have strong feelings and opinions on a Monday, but have a conversation with a wise person on a Tuesday and completely change my views. I want to be more open and more willing to search out what God wants me to say instead of what I want to say. I invite opportunities to grow my perspective and knowledge, and I don't want to be stuck in wrong thinking if that's the case.  But if a person is stuck seeing my caterpillar stage, they will never get to know me as a butterfly. 

but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 

1 Corinthians 13:10-12

Butterflies really take a big risk, and so should we. There are times we need to hang in a quiet chrysalis for awhile and think about what we've said or done, what we've gone through, or how we presented ourselves. We may need to make some adjustments while we're sitting still, and risk looking dull and lifeless for awhile. We could get knocked off our branches, eaten by predators, written off as "ugly," or maybe those who really know us will understand that it's a life cycle of change, and the breakthrough is coming. 

Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends. 

Proverbs 17:9 

It makes me wonder how many people we are still thinking of as caterpillars because of something that happened years ago, and we haven't even thought that maybe they think differently now, and they've long flown that image we had. How many friends have we lost because we heard something we didn't like and we didn't care enough to stick around and get the rest of the story? To see the rest of their cycle through? 

I have yet to completely find my wings every day. I have caterpillar days, chrysalis days, and sometimes even egg days. What I hope to find are other wet-winged butterflies who understand that life is a cycle of growth, and we don't always present our best self. I won't always say the right or best thing, but I'm always willing to communicate if someone cares enough to ask me what I meant. Grace is a two-way gift that helps me understand that others need the same understanding that I do in order to keep going strong. We can get each other through every stage of life and it can be beautiful in the end. 

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8