Hard Love

I heard the song "Hard Love" play on the radio the other day by Need to Breathe and I almost had a mini-meltdown in my car. They were the words I needed. The chorus states this:

"Hold on tight a little longer

What don't kill ya, makes ya stronger

Get back up, 'cause it's a hard love

You can't change without a fallout

It's gon' hurt, but don't you slow down

Get back up, 'cause it's a hard love"

It's a hard love y'all. Hard when you were knocked down time and time again by a person's hurtful words, mind games, and psychological abuse from when you were a child and all the way up into your 20's by a person who is supposed to love and protect you. And you go visit them in a place you would never normally step inside and most days you choose to forgive, but it's hard.

It's a hard love when you have to love people who continually shun you, shame you, or chew you out for not even really doing anything wrong. It's hard to love people at work when they don't have your back and you are trying your best with a child and they just don't get it, because they aren't in the classroom everyday and they don't see what you deal with. 

It's hard when a co-worker tells you privately "Girl, you are so strong. You must have gone through some pretty tough stuff, because the strongest people go through a lifetime of hurts" and you just start sobbing. And then they think they did something terribly wrong, but instead you tell them "No, it's just that no one has ever really noticed before and I don't really open up to people about it." You breathe a sigh of relief that at least someone outside your family knows your secret. That you don't have it all together, even when it may look like it. 

It's hard when you feel like you are about to have a mental breakdown from all the stress at work, home life, church hurts and more. It's like a huge weight is on my chest and I can barely breathe. And yet God calls me to step out of the bed everyday and keep going. Guys if what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, I guess I am going to be rock solid after all this. 

Sometimes things in this life just hurt really bad, but God gives me the grace to get back up every time I am knocked down. He is my anchor and my shelter in the storm and y'all, I've pretty much had storms on my horizon since I was around 8 years old. Sometimes I want to scream at the sky, "God, why?!! Why does this all have to keep happening to me?" And I am reminded that He didn't promise me an easy life and He told us we would have hardships and trials. If Jesus could go to the cross for me, then I can get through all of this. 

It's a hard love, but it was never meant to be easy. 

By THIS Everyone Will Know...

My heart aches for the unity in Christ all believers should have. Because let's face it, sometimes I think people will be shocked to find other people in heaven who don't go to their church. Christianity isn't some all-inclusive club for only the elite to get in. It's for every wretched, dirty heart that falls on their face before a mighty God and accepts Him as their Lord and Savior. It's for the Pentecostal, the Baptist, the Presbyterian, the Lutheran, the Methodist, the Apostolic, the Non-denominational, Inter-denominational, and the list could go on.  

Those are LABELS that we put on ourselves. Jesus doesn't see labels y'all, He sees HEARTS! No where in the Bible does it say "Those who go to such and such church will be saved, all those who go to a different church are wretched sinners." It says "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."-Romans 10:13 Newsflash: All we, like sheep have gone astray. We all have turned everyone to his own way. We are ALL wretched sinners in need of a gracious, loving Savior. You know what we are without Jesus? Dirty, stinky rags. The kind that are good for nothing but the trash. They are ripped, torn to pieces, and every inch of them is covered in filth. That is us without Jesus and it doesn't matter what church doors we grace with our presence each week. Because in His eyes, we are all the same. 

I feel sick to my stomach when I remember how I was taught differently growing up. How they would feed me the lies that while yes everyone was a sinner, we were somehow better off than everyone else because we attended some supernatural, special church. There is NOTHING special about a church building or the leaders or the programs etc. They may be nice, but when it all comes down to it what matters is that the people of God are out there showing love to a lost and dying world.

Because Jesus said "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”-John 13:35  Too many churches and believers today have rewritten this verse in their mind to read something like this: "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples"..... "if you attend this church", "if you put down others who don't go to your church" 'if you choose a position no matter how wrong it is and then twist Scripture to back up your position", "if you accumulate all the power you can and use it to inflict agony upon others all in the name of Jesus". 

Oh my heart breaks. Guys, no wonder the devil is having a hey-day. He is sitting back with joy on his scheming, devising and dividing face watching God's people fall apart because there is disunity in the church. And by the church, I don't mean a building. I mean the family of God. Every single born-again believer makes up the church. From here all the way to Australia and everything above, below or in between. Every person who has ever called upon the name of the Lord to save them is a part of this church. I don't think some of us are going to know what to do when we get to heaven and see some other people up there too. 

Christianity is not a country club guys, so can we please stop treating it like it is? It's a messy, chaotic, surrendered, not very glamorous life. But if we truly follow Jesus and let His love pour into us and through us, it's a life full of peace that surpasses understanding, joy that is unspeakable and faith that is unshakable. I want to get back to that kind of Christianity. What about you?