Living Life for Christ Alone

“Abba, Father… when I bring broken things to You, don’t You heal? But why at times do You hold the broken things in Your hands -still broken? Why when I hand You the broken things, do You carry all the pieces, yet do nothing to put them back together?” I ask this question one morning, heart aching, hurt rising. “I know some pain isn’t meant to necessarily go away…” I try again, “But what is it for?” The question echoes deep in the chambers of my heart. What of the pain of seeing brokenness and not being able to do anything about it? What of the pain of seeing the broken people and circumstances God cares about and knowing that unless He works impossible miracles, nothing good can come out of brokenness? Sometimes, there are unnamed pains and brokenness deep within that are too deep to even describe with words. Grief that rises when least expected, grief of ongoing suffering of the silent kind. And I wonder… does God have a purpose in that kind of pain? I look around and...

  “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?” (Mat thew 18:12)   Many going in the right direction, following the Shepherd, doing as He says...   But then there’s one wandering.   One, just one. That’s all it takes to get Him searching.    One wandering off, leaving the others that are doing it right.    One forgetting to listen, failing to follow.    One falling into a ditch, finding himself stuck on a ledge far off the path.    One feeling alone, wondering if the Shepherd even cares.    One starving to be found, looking up and realizing he is lost.    One who hasn’t discovered he is lost yet.    I see Him looking around at His sheep to see that one is gone. Suddenly His eyes go to the mountains where they just walked together –Him and all one hundred sheep.   And n...

“But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17) Shuts up his heart. Makes it so that the needy person has no access to the tenderest emotions that are felt there.   In a world that encourages us to put up walls and shut people out who hurt us, Jesus lifts high a different banner. He shows us a better, more beautiful way. But it is the way of the cross; the way of true, heavenly love.   You can’t truly lay down your life with your heart shut up –walls up, roof on, windows and doors locked. If your heart is inaccessible, so are the tenderest emotions that are needed to love another human being. And if compassion and tender love are not an ingredient in laying down your life, you aren’t laying it down.   But the risk involved in opening  your heart to another human being is huge. How many would dare go to that extreme for someone?   Many have been so hurt by...