How He Loves Us.

Love. It's been the pivitol emotion of the human being since the beginning of time. People have been proud, have been sorrowful, have hoped, have hated, but love has been stronger than any emotion ever conceived. There have been thousands of songs written about one thing:love. These songs might varry from the "I want your body" love, to the true appreciation of love that other bands like Plain White T's produce (Yes, I just did free advertising.)

And what about the movies that have been produced about love? Think about all the chic flicks there are out there. Personally, my favorite movie, the Princess Bride, is about how love transcends through death. Buttercup's fiance, Wesley, had been captured by a pirate ship and word had spread that he was dead. Five years passed and Buttercup was betrothed to the evil Prince. But enter Wesley once again in the picture. When Wesley questioned Buttercup why she didn't wait for him, she told him that he was dead. But he proved to her that true love transcends through death.

What love does that remind you of? The sex-saturated world full of people who have rejection issues might have heard of this love, but they just don't have the strength to believe it. It's JESUSSSS!!! (enter fireworks)

"Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." -John 15:5. I beg to differ. Jesus had the greatest love of all, because he died for people who would reject him, and than rose again because his love is stronger than death.

The thing with this love is that all of us know that we "love" things, when we really just like it. We "love" America, when every single one of us complain about living in this country. We "love" the world, when in reality, we have only seen maybe 2% of it. Have you ever felt a love that wanted to rip your heart out? Maybe someone that you have loved was being really stupid, and you were not angry, you were sad for them and you just wanted to help them get back on the right track. Jesus did that exact thing for all of us. You guys know the story in the bible that talks about how a shepard will leave the 99 to search out the one that is lost? Jesus did that for you. He LOVES you. He doesn't just like you. He LOVES you. And he wants you back.

Small = Big.

"And the King will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you have done to the least of my brethren, you have done to me." -Matthew 25:40.

According to the world, success is in numbers. The amount of viewers for this past superbowl was at 111 million, therefore it was considered the most successful game yet. If a restaurant is teeming with customers so that there is a wait of half an hour or more, it is considered to be a more successful business than a mom-and-pop's diner that has a scanty flow. If a church has an average attendance of a couple thousand, it is considered more successful than a small church of a couple hundred. If someone goes on a mission trip and there are a hundred people saved during that time, the mission trip is considered more successful than one that only has one person or even none that are "saved." Worldly success is in numbers.

But God's

success

is in

quality.

I have been convicted about this. I have taken on the mentality of the world. The youth groups are automatically cooler if they have more students because, of course with more students there are more opportunities. Larger churches are fantastic because with a larger group is more talent and since my worship love language is music, thats what I aim for! More friends = a happier life. What I have realized but failed to accept is that life is just as good, nay, better, if the quality of the relationships that we have outweigh the quantity of relationships. My church may be small, my youth group may be small, and my circle of friends may be small, but I guarantee that those relationships that I have with those people would be spread so thin that they would barely exist if everything in life was larger. And I wouldn't trade it for anything.

The same goes for the kingdom of heaven. What is the point of being a follower of Jesus if we just get lost in the crowd? What is the point of being a child of God if we just join a subculture that all dresses, talks, and acts alike? Granted, if we are all true followers of Christ, there will be similarities, just as there are physical similarities in families. What is the point of winning someone for Christ if we just tally them in on our list of "spiritual successes?"

It's about quality, not quantity. How can we just look over the masses of people in the world and not really see their hearts? Everyone is human, no one is less then human and no one is more than human. We all have feelings, wants, and needs. Like the need for food, water, and love. Why do we just look over those masses and not realize that?

People have asked me when I will be going back to Africa. I don't know when. If God wills it, within the next couple of years, but I might never go back. I might die tomorrow on American soil. But until I go back to Africa, God has really convicted me to love everyone like they are human. To build relationships with everyone that I meet, focusing on that particular person as if they are the most important thing in the world and loving them like they are.

The entire world might be beyond us. We might never go to China, or Africa, or the Amazon. But we can love the least of these, remembering that we are loving Christ at the same time.

Steady.

Last Sunday, I was just about to end my shift and Subway was dead because there was this thing called the Superbowl that apparently about 1/3 of the American people watch. I think it's pretty much equivalent to the Fifa World Cup, except only in America. The few people who decided to be rebels all showed up to Subway via drivethru. NOTE> Subway drivethru sucks. You wait twice as long to get your sandwhiches, you basically cut in line from the people who actually use their legs to walk into the restaurant, and we are more likely to mess up your order (like the time that I took two sandwhichs from the main counter to the drivethrough and had to remake four sandwhiches because of it. ) Just don't do it. It just causes stress on us.

ANYWHO. I was making a drivethru sandwhich and the store was pretty quiet. It was near the end of the night, so all the floors had just been mopped and the tables and chairs had been wiped down. And the dishes...the hundreds of dishes had been washed- and the water spilt all over the floor. I had been feeling quite adventurous that day and I rebeled against wearing my running shoes to work and instead opted to rock the old converse with the snazzy purple laces. I rounded the corner to get some more mayonoise from the super cool walk-in fridge and I most definitely forgot that there was water on the floor, and since my converse have no traction whatsoever now, I completely wiped out on my left side. I brought down two brooms, a tall trashcan (which I actually split in half with my left arm) and one of the large dustpans that lazy people use when they don't want to bend down to use a real dustpan. The greatest thing about this is through all the unsteadiness and spilling trash, I popped right back up to get the maynoise. This whole scene happened and ended in less than 5 seconds. It was like, downUP! That fast.

My point is this. The last few weeks I've kind of been well, depressed, to say the least. And I've told God a few things that are just completely stupid and immature. But He spoke to me on Sunday night and told me that as steady as my hearts beats, so is his love for me. It can't deminish because I make a fool of myself by wiping out in Subway or by completely blaspheming and dissing him. It's gonna be there because when you die for someone, you can't exactly say, "Oh, I just decided that my entire life wasn't worth you not going to hell." And raising again just proves how commited you are. Lets just say this, we will always fail God. But his love for us remains steady no matter what. Let that blow your mind.