teach me to love.

I want to learn how to love. Last night's talk at the Gathering really struck a chord in me. To live based on a standard of love not on a standard of fairness. When did we ever begin believing that life, or love are in any way fair? Or that we deserve something from someone? As Kelly said last night, thank goodness God doesn't treat us fairly! We deserve hell. Forgiving and loving means not keeping score. Wow. How badly I have failed at that in so many of my relationships. We are called to be active in reconciliation...that's pretty much the whole basis upon which Christianity stands, that Christ gave up everything to reconcile us to Himself. Nothing about that is fair. So how do we begin to love? None of us are naturally inclined to love, none of us have a personality that is more loving, or less loving...love only comes from God. Again, as Kelly said last night, "The best thing you can do for your relationships is to preach to yourself the Gospel every morning." Constantly absorbing ourselves, constantly reminding ourselves of truth...and knowing intimately the heart of God. That's our resource for love. We all crave love and we'll desperately look for it wherever we can get it. If we feel a "love deficiency" and choose not to go to God then we will look for more love from the people around us - we will expect more from them then they can ever actually give us. Think about it in this way - we cannot love each other. We can't. But we can love each other through Christ.