Love without Any Strings Attached...

Do to others as you would like them to do to you. If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! ... Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them wihtout expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. Luke 6


Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. I John 4:11-12

This entry has taken me a while to process. I have been meditating over and over God's two greatest commands; Love God and Love your Neighbor. About six months ago I asked God to teach me what it means to Love your Neighbor. While I am still on this journey and might be for a long time to come, I am slowly beginning to understand what it entails. At first glance, you think He might choose strangers, neighbors, people we don't know to teach us this principle. While he has brought some people into my life that fit this description, they are not the ones that are difficult to love without any preconceptions or expectations of receiving anything in return when I invest my time, finances or energy. This is one of the cornerstones that our church we attend talks about. Often it is talked about in context of reaching out to our community, people outside of our every day lives. I find these people easy to serve! When I see a need, I receive great pleasure in extending an open hand to meet those.

However, God has a way of teaching us lessons through things that don't come easy. Trials are meant for the purpose in bringing out the worse characteristics in us so they can be addressed. This journey called life is all about preparing us for eternity. God and sin don't mix. While God is a God of love and mercy, He also has no tolerance for bad attitudes, unGodly lifestyles and choices. It is like the process of refining gold. It takes intense heat to bring impurities to the surface. After they are skimmed off, you have pure gold. Our lives are the same way. He wants to remove the impurities in our attitudes and actions so we have a close relationship with him and are prepared for the life He has for us in Heaven.

Because of life experiences; disappointments, offenses committed against us, rejection, being misunderstood, mistakes, people failing us, we pull away. Relationships become clouded, walls come up and the close bonding that could have or should have been becomes a distant memory or a desire that might not come to pass.

These kinds of broken relationships happen between friends, neighbors, family members, church family, co-workers and bosses. Any environment that you can dream up, whenever people are involved, there will always be some kind of hurt that takes place. For me, God has used close friends and family members to teach this principle to me. He kind of caught me off guard. Funny how God does that, "Our thoughts are not His thoughts"...Some relationships are broken for years, different personalities breed much miscommunication and lack of trust. You would think that in a family setting it is the one place that you feel unconditional love. I see it over and over every day in so many families. Family is a breeding ground for dysfunction, rejection, performance setting, judgment, criticism, and lack of concern or compassion, bad manners and lack of boundaries. Everyone is speaking and no one is listening. And yet, everyone wants to be heard, respected, loved for who they are not who someone else thinks they should be.

How can we rise above all the dysfunction??? I'm still working on that, sad to say...He has been showing me each broken relationship in my life, one by one and the process is the same. Just as I allow Him to heal one, He won't let up. He spot lights the next one...

The journey is the same...
Grant forgiveness: I choose to forgive you of ....., I am letting you off the hook, your debt is paid in full!

Grant grace: You have not asked for forgiveness, I am choosing to show you compassion, to let go of all of the offenses you have committed against me. In the future I will show you kindness and treat you with respect. I do not want my bitterness to impact others or create a wall in my relationship with God!

Grant me the ability to Love: Even though I can't forget all the things you have done to me consciously or unconsciously, I choose to love you because you are a friend or a family member. God help me to see this person as you see them and to love them regardless of what they say or do. Help me hold my tongue and not slander against them when they repeat the same actions because of their own weaknesses...

Who is God using in your life to teach you how to love with no strings attached? Is it your son or daughter, mom or dad, sister or cousin, aunt or uncle, best friend, boss or someone in authority over you? Who in your life has hurt you and you have a hard time having a close relationship? What steps do you need to love unconditionally???