Love Loses

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
~ Maya Angelou

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. … Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to His saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me.
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in Colossians 1

Oh beloved, it is true.

Though we may get applause, this is no guarantee we have done good. And, in exactly the same way, having someone not like our action is no guarantee that it was wrong. Oh yes, either are worth considering, but opinion never determines reality.

As we begin to find the beginnings of Christ-likeness, there will come into our lives, times where we will be afforded opportunities to enter into situations where we can begin to Love. At first, He gives us the stuff that is easy, and marketable. We do good, and just like a father would celebrate his baby’s first stumbling attempt to walk, we get some applause and attaboys.

Beautiful, but not exquisite.

There is more.

Christ mediates his grace to us through creatures, especially other people. We have nothing to offer God by ourselves. Even our ability to say yes is a gift of grace. But God has so willed that we can indeed make that offering—or not. When we do, it is joined to Christ’s offering and becomes part of the gift he makes of himself to the Church. The same is true of the mysterious sufferings of those who, seemingly, have nothing to offer *but* suffering.
~ Mark Shea

Even Paul went through it at first. If one studies this man’s life, we can see that he started as a Jewish scholar and zealot. He had the praise of people high up within his organization as he persecuted people of The Way. But, nearly two decades of retraining after his conversion had taught him a better, and higher way.

Grace.

And in his suffering, Paul began to see that what he was doing was losing. He was fading away, and becoming to the world, an insignificant piece of fodder. Now, instead of being a licensed killer for the religion of judaism, he was facing death nearly daily, and would soon experience it at the hand of Caesar Nero.

Can we see it?

It is our destiny as well. As we toil with the strength of the very G_d of the universe coursing through our spirits, we will now come up on situations where doing something in Love will not be applauded like the baby steps we took in the past, but they will often be derided or misunderstood as the actions of someone who is untrustworthy, and weak, or repulsive – worse.

This fool of a writer has taken actions motivated by Love that have saved persons and organizations. Honestly, i am nobody apart from Him, but i have come to understand that, in Him i am one who can truly Love and sacrifice – apart from whether someone approves of my actions.

And, what i have found, is that when we take actions that are courageous and motivated by Love, they will often be misunderstood. They will sometimes be disdained. Sometimes, they will even cause the person we have helped to reject us altogether.

The Father understands this. It is what He experiences from most of us, most of the time. And still, He Loves and continues to pursue us through the suffering of His Son, and His great heart of Love towards us.

So, are you beginning to do things based purely on Love? Good! Be aware, though, it will not get any easier. The closer we come to Him, the more we will begin to be like Him – and to experience Life the way He does. This will often include suffering. Keep going. Our suffering has the possibility of redeeming people in ways that our early life in Him could not.

Tonight is your night. Time to lose that Love may win.

I promised myself that I would write as well as I can, tell the truth, not to tell everything I know, but to make sure that everything I tell is true, as I understand it. And to use the eloquence which my language affords me.
~Maya Angelou