Living Life for Christ Alone

I hope that I have begun to convey to you just how incredible the love of God is, and just how staggering it can be for God to love other human beings through us.  The love of God alone is powerful enough to break down barriers that human logic, wisdom, money, or power can never penetrate.   But what if we are gazing at the world through a lens that is incompatible with this love?  What if we are trying to mix our own perspectives with God's? You see, my natural human nature coldly recoils when asked to suffer loss of any kind on the behalf of another human being.  From birth, selfishness reigns.  We love ourselves too much to care about others.  We fight for the best things. We cry when our needs aren't met, or our wants aren't given. We only think of ourselves -and others are barely on our radar unless we can gain something from them. When it comes right down to it, we will save our own skin before laying down our own lives for someone else. We ...

“Look into my eyes,” I say.   She looks as though her world is about to fall apart. She can’t seem to bring herself to look up. Does she doubt my love? Does she think she knows better than I? Does she really believe I don’t want what’s best for her?   I crouch down and get eye level with her. “Look into my eyes,” I repeat.   She just glances into them, but then her eyes continue to look around the room. She seems to think her life is ruined. Crocodile tears stream down her cheeks.   I know differently. Her life is not ruined. We are heading in the right direction. She’s growing. She’s learning. I haven’t left her. I’m still right here, and I plan to stay by her side while she grows and learns.   “No, no... Look into my eyes, and keep looking,” I say.   Finally, her little blue eyes meet mine. This time, she doesn’t look away. Her eyes soften. She realizes I do love her. Whatever I was saying seems to make it past that sound barrier that makes my words sound...