with a heart wide open

In Searching for God Knows What*, Donald Miller, Prince of Spiritual Insight, says this:

"Moses wrote Job before he wrote Genesis, most scholars agree, and so the first thing God wanted to communicate to mankind was that life was hard, and there is pain, great pain in life, and yet the answer to this pain, or the cure for this pain, is not given in explanation; rather, God offers to this pain, or this life experience, Himself. Not steps, not an understanding, not a philosophy, but Himself."

So at church the other day, we talked about the same concept. About how, after the Fall, in this world where we all have the capacity for evil, and we are aware of all this evil around us, how it's easy to feel like you're just fumbling around hurting and lost. And how, against all logic we have to explain it, God does this drastic move out of love, right? Where He BACKTRACKS, goes from the greatness that is Heaven to the crappy mess that is Earth and He's like, Here I am to get you! He doesn't just tell us how we can make our lives better, or scold us for being stupid and sinful, or make us find our own way Home. He actually comes to us, meets us in our depression and insecurity. He offers Himself to where we feel the most insignificant and broken. And what could be better, right?

And then I see things like this.

And it's like, how do we actually live in a place where people honestly feel like they are worthless and have no one? It seems like everywhere you turn, there's all these people with broken hearts and these deep wounds that are going to take a lifetime to fix. And then I realize, it's my own fault, because I don't love people like Jesus would love them, fully and unconditionally. So I've been thinking a lot about what it would be like to love other people this way. Because loving people like Jesus would is RIDICULOUSLY IMPOSSIBLE. I get frustrated, or hurt, or needy, or selfish, or some other emotion that makes me all, I'M DONE HANGING OUT WITH YOU. But that's not what Jesus does, SEE? He meets us in our depression. He's not the Friend that tells you what you want to hear, or makes you feel insignificant, or tells you that your feelings are ridiculous. He's the Friend that sits down and weeps alongside you when you're weeping, rejoices when you rejoice, all the while leading you through experiences that make you become the person He wants you to be. And who wouldn't want to love people like that? And maybe if we all did that, it would make all that crappy, messy, hurtful stuff easier to handle. Or at least we wouldn't have to handle it all alone.



*You should probably go read this book. Even if you've already read it. Because it definitely speaks to the condition of the heart with its DEEP AND INTIMATE TRUTHS THAT MAKE ME FEEL LIKE YELLING.