A Peace that Passeth Understanding

Love. The world is filled with images of it. It's what everyone strives for, from the smallest toddler to the oldest individual. It's what drives everything, when you look at it under a microscope. Bad behavior, depression, even crime can be blamed for the lack of it. No one ever seems to have too much. We search for it everywhere. Much of the advertising world is based on love. A large portion of it is sexual love, but it also depicts family love, friendship, and 'love' of objects. It's pretty important in our society. It must be pretty important to God too. I mentioned earlier how many mentions of love there are in The Word (551- NIV). That's alot of them. Everywhere I turn for the last week I have noticed a lesson in love or the lack of it. When God is trying to make a point with us, you can see His Hand in providing those lessons for you. One of these lessons in love involved an act of desperation. Hearts were broken, lives changed forever. So sad. A good and kind person. Lesson learned: some day it will be too late to "fix" the relationships in my life. Another lesson I learned happened at church. We had a revival, and I was only able to go one time, on Sunday morning. Through a misunderstanding (my creation), I did not work in the nursery, and was able to be in service. God-ordained, I believe. The service was handled by members from Teen Challenge. This organization has 200 centers throughout the United States, and caters to all ages. It is a faith-based program for people who are caught in addictions, giving them a comprehensive Christian solution to their dependency. There were 6 people there, but a testimony was given by one woman who was not much younger than I am. I cried the entire time. But for the Grace of God, there go I. So many un-loving relationships that led this woman to a life of despair. And yet, God's love was big enough to lift her up. So I have been on an emotional rollercoaster, thinking and researching this issue.The third lesson learned came in the form of 'pleasure' reading.I just finished reading a couple of Francine Rivers' books. Francine always wanted to be an author from the time she was a small child. Her first manuscript was published in 1976, and from there she started writing historical novels. Then, in 1986, she became a born again Christian. Her ideas for writing virtually dried up at that time, so she devoted herself to studying the Bible. She began to feel she needed to write with a Christian theme, and 'Redeeming Love' was released in 1991. It is based on the book of Hosea, but is set in the mid 1800's. If you have not read it, you should. The books I just finished last night are a series she called 'Marta's Legacy'. It is comprised of 2 500+ page books, written about 4 generations of women in a family from 1901 to the current time. Beautifully written, with a Christian message you can't avoid, the concept of love in a family hit me like a ton of bricks. There were many instances of hurt and lost time with family in these books because of misunderstandings and miscommunications. Mothers who loved their daughters desperately, and yet by some of their decisions and behaviors the daughters did not think they were loved. Doesn't that happen all the time? Misunderstandings turn into big relationship breaks. Mistakes (that we all make as parents, siblings,mates, etc.)turn into years of heartache. Most of the time, these things are never "fixed" this side of heaven. Why is that? Why is it that all of us, but Christians ESPECIALLY, have so much trouble with getting love right? Just in the area of divorce, a factor I believe is the basis for much of our trouble as a society, the statistics of divorce among professing Christians is staggering! If you google 'Christian divorce rate' you come upon a website http://thegospelcoalition.org. There's an interesting article that gave me yet another lesson in love. You might want to read it. It points to evidence the 60% divorce rate for professing Christians is misstated. It is true for professing Christians, but for practicing,spirit filled belieivers the numbers are much lower. It's a great article. Oh and by the way, I started my lists of wonderful characteristics about people I have some trouble loving the way I should. I am ashamed to say my lists were short. I am going to continue working on them. I HOPE the brevity of the list is due to my over-generalization. Surely I'm not that harsh a judge on my loved ones..... Loving is hard. Loving well is even harder. But I believe that anything God calls us to do He gives us the strength and wisdom to do. That's why my "life verse" is Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength Love gives us peace, it's as simple as that. And peace comes when we, as PRACTICING Christians, are reading and studying scripture every day, praying for direction, and letting the Holy Spirit within us guide us in our dealings with others. It comes when we lap up the love the Father so freely gives. It comes when we submit to a plan that's so much better than what we can come up with on our own. When we pursue a relationship with the maker of the universe. When we do this, we are surely given, "a peace that passeth all understanding". Praise God!