Fall 2009 40-Day Fast, October 18, Day 2: Unconditional Love
A light bulb went on in my head today as I was listening to yet another Francis Chan podcast, “Motivating Through Grace” [ Download from iTunes here http://ax.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=74283811]. In it, Francis speaks of how we can live through the stress and anxieties of life because of the grace of God – and he quotes the apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians 6:9-10 about 0:40 in: 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people……
This, I realized, was the essence of showing unconditional love to others — not loving them in spite of the condition of their heart, but loving them in spite of the condition of my heart. Unconditional love is about loving others even when I am weary, even when I am tired, even when I am grumpy, weak, wanting, spent: loving them even when I don’t feel like loving them. I have forever thought of unconditional love only in terms of the condition of others. I have thought that it only meant that God loves me despite my condition and therefore I should love others despite theirs: despite how imperfect they are, never mindful of their being nasty and needy, selfish and silly, forgetful and frustrating, unreasonable and unwilling, judgmental and jealous, sick and supercilious, hurt, potentially harmful, crazy, nuts, misinformed, stubborn, unthoughtful, self-centered, spiteful, cynical, depressed, critical…hard to love. That still holds true. However, that takes the higher position of assuming that I am doing them a favor by loving them in spite of themselves. Today, I realized that unconditional love also means loving others in spite of myself. Paul says in essence, “Are you tired? Do good anyway.” I would elaborate on that to say: Am I feeling inconvenienced, not up to it, begrudging, taken advantage of, misunderstood, drained? Am I less than willing? Love anyway. Love without regard to the condition of my heart because that is true love, God’s type of love —love that loves even when I don’t find it easy. It’s not up to me to point out the condition of other people’s hearts. That’s called judgment. But it is up to me to love when I don’t feel like it, without condition. That’s unconditional love, and that’s grace. Prayer and contemplation:
Who am I stopping from giving love to because I feel like it? Have I put myself on a sabbatical from love because I feel burned out from loving too much, as if that were possible? Show me, Lord, how to love unconditionally, freely, without stopping to decide if I am ready or they are worthy. Holy Spirit, examine my heart and my intentions and free me to love despite myself.
Read the full passage and all of Paul’s letter to the Galatians here:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+6&version=TNIV Pamela A. Chun
©October 18, 2009
Please reprint only with permission.
This, I realized, was the essence of showing unconditional love to others — not loving them in spite of the condition of their heart, but loving them in spite of the condition of my heart. Unconditional love is about loving others even when I am weary, even when I am tired, even when I am grumpy, weak, wanting, spent: loving them even when I don’t feel like loving them. I have forever thought of unconditional love only in terms of the condition of others. I have thought that it only meant that God loves me despite my condition and therefore I should love others despite theirs: despite how imperfect they are, never mindful of their being nasty and needy, selfish and silly, forgetful and frustrating, unreasonable and unwilling, judgmental and jealous, sick and supercilious, hurt, potentially harmful, crazy, nuts, misinformed, stubborn, unthoughtful, self-centered, spiteful, cynical, depressed, critical…hard to love. That still holds true. However, that takes the higher position of assuming that I am doing them a favor by loving them in spite of themselves. Today, I realized that unconditional love also means loving others in spite of myself. Paul says in essence, “Are you tired? Do good anyway.” I would elaborate on that to say: Am I feeling inconvenienced, not up to it, begrudging, taken advantage of, misunderstood, drained? Am I less than willing? Love anyway. Love without regard to the condition of my heart because that is true love, God’s type of love —love that loves even when I don’t find it easy. It’s not up to me to point out the condition of other people’s hearts. That’s called judgment. But it is up to me to love when I don’t feel like it, without condition. That’s unconditional love, and that’s grace. Prayer and contemplation:
Who am I stopping from giving love to because I feel like it? Have I put myself on a sabbatical from love because I feel burned out from loving too much, as if that were possible? Show me, Lord, how to love unconditionally, freely, without stopping to decide if I am ready or they are worthy. Holy Spirit, examine my heart and my intentions and free me to love despite myself.
Read the full passage and all of Paul’s letter to the Galatians here:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+6&version=TNIV Pamela A. Chun
©October 18, 2009
Please reprint only with permission.
posted by Pam Chun at 12:04 AM
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