Tag Archives: Love

How Does Forgiveness Work?

Forgiveness is a new way of looking at others. It is a radical and countercultural perspective on life. If you believe in forgiveness—that God forgives even though he is not obligated to, and that we’ll have the best kind of life if we hold other people in our lives with a loose grip—then you will see people for what they can be and what they were intended to be, rather than simply as they are.

Forgiveness means looking at people who have wronged you and deciding that you’d like to set things right—but in the end, you’re not going to play God.

Forgiveness is a decision and a process. You can release someone from obligation to you personally, even though the smoldering fires of resentment may keep burning in you for some time to come. {Click to read more.}

I asked to be a lover…

I didn’t comprehend the magnitude of what I was asking. I thought I was ready to love. I thought I was ready for love to work through me. I thought all I needed to do was be a willing vessel… remain open… offer myself – my humanity – and my resources… and give what is needed when it’s needed. I thought the resistance to love would only be temporary – so short term as to be unremarkable. I thought the ugliest rejection I would encounter would be “no, thank you.” {Click the link to read full article.}

…and the people said “HELL NO!”

The world teaches that love is a soft thing – warm, cuddly, tender, weak. Perhaps those who bask in the labor of someone else’s love experiences warmth and softness, but those who labor to love… well we weather tempestuous storms, debilitating uncertainty and endure heart-breaking on-the-job training. We don’t immediately see the benefits of the humiliation, shame, loneliness, sadness, abuse or temptations that hammer at us throughout the workday. But when we get to a certain point on our walk, we are able to look back and see where one humiliation prepared us for the next until humiliation was no longer a concern. We see how shame shrouded us in darkness until we decided to cast off the weight of shame and expose ourselves to more light. We can look back and see how loneliness felt excruciating for a time, but it was only in our aloneness that we were able to draw closer to God.

ACAD – Praise: James 5

Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you. {Click to read chapter.}

ACAD – Praise: Psalm 66

Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot.
There did we rejoice in him,
who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah
{Click to read chapter.}

ACAD – Praise: Psalm 63

Because your love is better than life,
I will praise you.
I will praise you as long as I live.
I will lift up my hands in prayer to your name.
I will be content as if I had eaten the best foods.
My lips will sing, and my mouth will praise you.

I remember you while I’m lying in bed;
I think about you through the night.
You are my help.
Because of your protection, I sing.
I stay close to you;
you support me with your right hand. {Click to read full chapter.}

ACAD – Praise: Psalm 33

The Lord looks down from heaven;
he sees all the children of man;
from where he sits enthroned he looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
he who fashions the hearts of them all
and observes all their deeds.
The king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
The war horse is a false hope for salvation,
and by its great might it cannot rescue. {Click to read full chapter.}

Good Cop. Bad Cop. Life is not so simple.

Hatred is an awesomely powerful emotion. It negatively impacts even those who are only observing hateful acts, reading hateful words and listening to hateful speech.

Hatred and fear are interconnected and reflective of each other. They both spread like an infection. Anyone who knowingly operates in fear or hate is not trustworthy nor can they provide safety. Nearly every officer this year who has shot and killed unarmed individuals claimed to fear for their lives. {Click to read full article.}