Life is messy. When we pour ourselves out to love and care for other people, it will be messy.
And in the process, we will inevitably experience some pain … and some hurt.
That’s part of being in relationship with others. That is part of loving and caring for other people. It just goes with the territory.
There are two choices we can make. First, we could choose that we don’t want to deal with the messiness and the pain. So, we choose to close off our heart … for protection’s sake. With our heart closed off to others, we are not vulnerable … to anyone.
But … if we choose to close off our heart (for protection’s sake), then we are choosing to forfeit all the amazing joys and blessings which God has waiting for us in that relationship.
We are also losing out on the opportunity for God to work through us … to be a blessing of His love to someone else. AND … we are losing out on the opportunity for God to work in us … strengthening us through the process, refining us, and making us more like Jesus.
We lose out on a ton by choosing to close off our heart.
Or … we could choose to open up our heart.
It takes courage! It takes courage to open up our heart to someone else … because we are, at that point, vulnerable. It is very uncomfortable to put yourself out there and be vulnerable. But, to love like Jesus requires nothing less.
To love like Jesus means that we must put our whole heart into it. Regardless of the potential hurt. Regardless of the potential pain. Trusting that God will be with us … and that He will give us the grace and strength for whatever lies ahead.
And there will be pain. For sure, it will happen.
There will be hurt.
For we are all fallen, sinful humans.
In today’s background photo you can see a picture of our Christmas cactus. I have a propensity for overwatering cactuses. A few years ago, I overwatered the Christmas cactus … almost to its demise. Its leaves began developing ugly splotches. The leaves began turning a sickly unhealthy color.
I didn’t mean to cause harm to the cactus. I didn’t intend to cause any hurt.
And yet … the cactus was in “pain” because of my ignorance and poor actions.
So it is in life. Those with whom we are in relationship most often don’t mean to cause pain. They don’t intend to cause hurt to us. And yet … we wind up experiencing pain and heartache.
As far as the Christmas cactus, I realized what I was doing and course-corrected the problem. The Christmas cactus has since flourished and added tons of healthy new green growth!
However, there are still lingering traces of where the “pain” used to be. If you look closely, you can see a few stems here and there which have leftover traces of the ugly splotches. The sickly leaves (those which did not fall off) were permanently damaged … so now, even though it is two years later, they are still the same sickly unhealthy color.
The Christmas cactus has healed … it is healthy now. But intermingled with the healthy growth, there remain a few lingering traces of the pain.
So it is in life.
God has called us to the task of loving people! Messiness and all!
Yes … there will be some pain. Yes … there will be some hurt. And yes … these things will leave lingering traces across our life, just like the lingering traces across the Christmas cactus.
But God is faithful! He will take care of us! He will sustain us! He will heal us!
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” – Isaiah 41:10
“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” – Isaiah 46:4
“For I am the LORD, you God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you: Do not fear; I will help you.” – Isaiah 41:13
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” – Psalm 147:3
“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” – Psalm 34:18
God is faithful! He will take care of us! He will sustain us! He will heal us!
