"God showed how much he loved us by sending his One and Only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him..dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other..we love each other because He first loved us." 1 John 4:9, 11, 19.
As you may have noticed, the title of my blog is Love Deeply. To be honest, I didn't know these words are in a bible verse until recently (1 Peter 4:8). When I was thinking of a title for this blog, all I could think of was love. Love can be difficult to do, especially when our judgments or someone's past is known to us. When I was thinking of loving deeply, I was thinking about how I want to do more than surface love. I want to get to know someone, dirt and all, and I want to love them. And love doesn't mean just being kind to someone and letting them walk all over you. Love means to walk alongside someone in their life but call them out when that needs to be done. Jesus loved deeply. He loved people in a way where they felt heard, understood, yet challenged.
It's my birthday tomorrow, so my birthday wish is for you all to love deeply. To find a person everyday that you can show love to. That you treat at least one person every day as better than yourself. If you do this, if you truly love selflessly, you will feel more love than you ever thought possible.
I'll leave some parting words from C.S. Lewis: "To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable".
Go! Love!