With Love Day upon us, I wasn’t sure what to write about; a clear need for more love in this world or the latest political jihad perpetuated by the ever-maligning left.
Eh, I think I’ll go with love.
What is love?
Well, Love is God. I’m not building a case for love, I’m simply reminding myself that HE. IS.
Oh sure, I write and talk about it, but there are many moments throughout any given day I have to actively say out loud, GOD.IS.LOVE. 
Moments when I scroll through my feed and see otherwise brilliant individuals stating our nation is shameful for protecting her borders. Or, an extra dose of my personal favorite, marches with no meaning. You know, the ones featuring those who crossed our borders flaunting their flagrant disregard for order and our sovereignty, while demanding they have a place at our table. Mainly because.. well, they say so. Oh, and so did Jesus apparently. (persecuted refugee/criminal= not synonymous)
Or, when I’m sitting in traffic in the city of Atlanta at a particular junction (think baseball) and I’m reminded of just how sinister, self-satisfying, deceptive & cunning politics can be in the name of commerce (the new progress).
I also have to remind myself that God is love while being flanked by the enemy of humanism and misunderstanding. The perpetual opportunity to be offended by everything from a bumper sticker to a t-shirt. You know, the statements that really matter. Those small advertisements of one’s mind- and heartset that have single-handedly caused me to make a full blown life & eternal assessment of someone’s current level of ignorance. I digress.
I’m reminded that God is love while listening to the rich, white kid who joins forces with the I’ll-never- be- rich- because -of -the- rich -white kid, black kid, in an effort to educate others on the need for diversity and reparation. You know, the ones using their first amendment (ahem, God given) right to speak freely to silence not only the voice of others, but the very thought of any reasonable human that happens to exist beyond the spirt of national/identity guilt.
I am reminded that God is love while the idols emerge (on red carpets, draped in faux) to demand our allegiance to their image and likeness while parading in front of our television screens as if the world would be relegated to silence should their clanging cymbals cease. Remember, the rocks would cry out and for some of us, that would be a welcomed sound compared to the trash satan produces in the earth in the name of music.
Again, I digress.
I am reminded that God is love when I look into the eyes of the person bound by addiction, despair and hopelessness. The mother who abandons her children to the boyfriend of the week or the father bound by a spirit of anger, whose children inordinately fear him. I am reminded to pray for the proud, rebellious, deaf and blind lest I return to my own vomit more than I already do. Whilst but for the grace of the God of love, there go I.
I am reminded that God is love every time I look in my mirror. My life indicates I should have no reason to love, trust or celebrate. No reason to hope.
But God. But Love.
My prayer for you this Love Day is that in spite of the world raging for your attention to give you every reason to believe Love doesn’t exist outside of the realm of perversion (perversion of order, sovereignty, justice, healing, honesty, mercy and actual TRUTH), that you begin your day by looking in your mirror and realize and live the truth, that you are made in the image & likeness of Love. True Love. Rooted in forgiveness, hope, truth and order. This goes beyond feelings. This is called faith for many of us. You are not a child of the world; confusion, guilt, fear and anger.
God is not finished with you yet and you have every reason to believe you deserve to be here; living well and loving well. He said it, not me. But I believe it. You have every reason & right to protect the sanctity of your own heart and mind because LOVE says so.
Buy yourself some flowers today. Make a nice meal. Go for a stroll in a park and take it all in. If you are single, so what? Do it anyway. You are never alone. In spite of it all, you will always have you and guess who dwells within you? The only Spirit that matters.
Make a list of all the qualities of your Father of Love you hold and simply thank Him for THE Spirit of Truth that prevails in you. This isn’t some spooky faith practice, this is spending quality time with actual Love. This is practical application Christianity. Say a simple thank you in your heart to THE God of Love. Confess those sins in your life, receive LOVE’s forgiveness, forgive yourself (and others) and get on with it.
A grateful heart is fertile soil to give and receive. Yes, you can be both vigilant & imperfect, while trusting God to complete the GOOD work HE began in you. If your church isn’t preaching mercy & reliance on God through your faith in Jesus’s completed work and loving yourself, pray for another church family.
Often times, how we see ourselves will determine how we see others. Love God with your heart, soul and mind and your neighbor as YOURSELF.
Happy Love Day to you! I’m glad you were born.
xo,
P.S. My new book officially releases today–and the Bonus Package is only available for a few more days. Why not give yourself or someone you love a gift of love.
1 Corinthians 13King James Version (KJV) (charity = LOVE)
13 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.