Because the more we give, the better we become. Real love is not self-seeking, and it will always cost you. It will cost your heart, your time and your money. It will cost your comfort, your rights and your pride. It will cost you to “lay down your life” for the life of another. And only those who learn to die to themselves are the ones who get to experience the resurrection power that comes with it—resurrection into real love, into real life, and into meaningful relationships.
~Debra Fileta
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
~ Psalm 121
Oh beloved, it is true.
Life can be brutal. And specifically, the pain of failed relationships feels like we are sitting on a slow train, in a dark tunnel – with no light at its end.
This fool of a writer is known for waxing long on certain subjects. This one doesn’t take as many words. For, just as a solid blow to the head will drop the strongest man, losing vital relationships with children, friends, and spouses will drop a man quickly – and little explanation is needed.
Loss
Despair
Sadness
Brokenness
Like coming up on a dead end, no matter which street one travels.
I am in the midst of this right now. Even as i type, i weep… We came 10,000 kilometres to attempt some sort of a beginning of a reconciliation with three of my older kids. But, as of 28 days into our trip, it appears that none of this will be happening for now.
Terrible, unwritable pain…
While restoring relationships is indeed a noble cause, and worthy of a trip across the Pacific, it is not something that is within our power. Reconciliation requires all parties involved to be willing to try.
Can we see it?
This is exactly the same problem Jesus had with us. He came across the very oceans of eternity, entered into time, swallowed death whole, and took the keys to Hades right off the wall in His victory march out of the grave into His now eternal existence as the Firstborn of many brethren.
Said more simply: He tore down every barrier between us and Him. His very Presence came from the mountain of G_d, and helped us in every way possible.
But, the reconciliation is not complete, until we allow it to happen.
So, are you struggling with loss, and a desire to see the people around you redeemed into true relationship? You are not alone in your quest. He is right there, alongside each of us, in perfect Love – yearning for us to come home as well.
Tonight is your night, and mine: Keep loving the lost. Jesus is doing it right beside us.
It is joyful to feel that we do not and cannot have any enemies among men, but only unhappy brethren, who are deserving of pity and help, even when, through misunderstanding, they become our enemies and fight against us. Woe! They do not understand that the enemy is found within ourselves, and that first of all one must cast him our of oneself, and then also help others to do the same. We have only one enemy: the devil and his evil spirits. But man, no matter how far he has fallen, never loses certain sparks of light and goodness which may be blown into a bright flame. But for us there is no reason to fight against people, even when they consistently send against all kind of blows and rebukes … To fight against people is to take a false position of our enemies. Even if we succeed, we gain nothing from this fight, but rather become estranged from our own success.
~Martyr Roman Medved, Letter to His Daughter from the Gulag, 1932
