I've had messy jumbles of thoughts that I have begun to type up then stopped because I didn't know what direction my words should go in next.
It's hard for me to say that I love to write and that writing comes naturally to me whenever I sit with my thumbs fiddling over my phone lost for words, not able to finish even a mere paragraph of what God has been teaching me. On this early morning, however, I think I've found words worth sharing. Or at the very least, I have some sort of a processed thought that, for my sake, needs typed up.
I read a post a while back on Tumblr and the phrase
"love is deliberate,"
stuck out to me.
{deliberate: done consciously and intentionally}
Love is deliberate.
A deliberate love, a love shown and felt so consciously and intentionally, is something the human heart craves.
The only being my mind can attach to a love so deliberate is Jesus.
Jesus deliberately came to live a life on earth amongst sinners who at times were starstruck with Him and at others, shouted hate towards Him at the top of their lungs and nailed Him to a tree. Jesus deliberately took on all of my sins so that I would be able to willingly choose to follow Him and love Him.
Jesus offers a love so deliberate that He not only allows, but welcomes vulnerability.
Vulnerability is something that has been tossed around in my mind a few times these past few months as well.
At youth one Sunday night back in February, the question, "What does Christianity enable us to do?" was asked. A sweet friend of mine answered,
"Christianity enables us to be vulnerable."
{vulnerable: capable of being physically or emotionally wounded}
I think one of the thinks that makes the Christian faith stick out amongst others is grace, and while grace does unfortunately tend to get covered up with deeds in many modern churches, it is one of the most incredible parts of surrendering every part of your life into the scarred hands of Jesus.
Accepting grace goes against our very nature though. We, as humans, feel we have to pay our own debts and forget that good work over faith is not the way of our Savior. We get so caught up in trying to right our own wrongs that we often forget we serve a God who forgives, and abundantly so at that. Accepting grace is vulnerable and is only possible through the never ceasing, deliberate love of Jesus.
Jesus deliberately and fully loves me so much that He offers grace to even the least of these and openly welcomes vulnerability in His Kingdom.
"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-- it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus." -Ephesians 2:4-7
"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long 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." -Ephesians 3:17-19
