Fast forward to September 2020. My heart's desire is fervent like it hasn't been in years. My awareness of the spiritual oppression in the area where I live is, at times, completely overwhelming. I have the opportunity (did I really just use that word for what is happening?!?!) to see firsthand the enemy's plan to pull people away from their loved ones to resist the conviction of conscience. The relationships with people I've known and appreciated for years are deteriorating as they look at me like the enemy because I ask hard questions and refuse to raise my voice in ways they think are necessary to prove my love for humanity. Outside of my personal bubble, I see destruction, hatred, and absolute vitriol being spewed in all directions. My heart aches in ways I cannot put into words more often than it rests in satisfaction of the life I'm living.
Which tells me there's work to be done.
I have one desire for my life - to know I have shared the love of Christ with those around in me in ways that became real and engaging to them. The keyword there is love. What is love? (baby don't hurt me......you knew I couldn't resist! The '80s are alive and well in my musical brain! But I digress....) Honestly, though, what IS love?
Is love just accepting and affirming a person in everything they do so they never have to deal with the pain of wrong choices or, let's call it what it is, sin?
Is love being the cheerleader every person needs while leaving the coach on the bench?
Is love only pointing out what needs to be changed because I know it will make them better?
Is love being sure no one is ever angry at me so I only say the good things?
Is love about feeling good? At all times? Only good vibes? Ever?
After almost 23 years of marriage, my solid answer to all of those questions above is a resounding, NO.
Love is seeing the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly in a person and still seeing them as made in the image of God. Seeing the humanity of a person - the imperfections that can make life with them more difficult - and still choosing to say and do what is necessary to show they have worth simply because they are created in the image of God.
Love is being willing to say the hard things when a wrong is done - not to condemn the person or to "put them in their place" - but so there can be a conversation, a heart-opening, and healing discussion. Hopefully, this conversation will bring them AND your relationship into a better place. (side note: sometimes the conversation you think you need to have with a person about their problem turns into a conversation they need to have about yours. Humbly approaching the confrontation of a problem allows that reciprocal love in action and brings far greater rewards in the long run.)
Love is realizing that God is at work in each of us, and His timing may not look like our timing. Okay, let's correct that - His timing RARELY looks like our timing. No, wait...better correction yet: His timing *never* looks like our timing! And yet, His timing is far better than we could ever expect or imagine because He sees the entirety of a situation (aaaaalllllllll the threads weaving together in the background) and knows exactly when they need to intersect to create the proverbial tapestry of our lives, and, ultimately, His Kingdom. Love knows God sees that person and cares for them far more than we can, even if we love with the kind of love that is at times painful.
Love is looking beyond the symptoms (outward actions) to the core of the issue (the heart's genuine need) and looking for ways to fill that need regardless of the reaction you may receive.
All of this sounds an awful lot like what I have, at times, sought to avoid measuring my love against (I know I'm not the only one, c'mon!):
I Corinthians 13: 1-8a:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,
I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love,
I am nothing.
If I give away all I have,
and if I deliver up my body to be burned,
but have not love,
I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind;
love does not envy or boast;
love is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing,
but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things,
believes all things
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never ends.
As I have walked through (emotionally crawled through some of) these past 11 days, I am continually reminded of how genuine love can change a situation.
I keep calling these situations I am living as opportunities, but let's be real - no situation that requires us to act on what we know is true when what we *really* want to do is respond in our humanity - is seen as an opportunity at the time!
However, looking back I can see them as exactly that. I have had multiple opportunities to either love or try to look like love but was really only to tolerate. In one situation I saw the power of genuine love in the atmospheric changes from arrival to departure, but others are still a work in progress. Each morning I wake up with the fervent prayers for loved ones on my mind and have to make the choice to either trust God in His timing and work in their lives, or get angry about what they are choosing to do (or not do). Each and every day I have had to wrestle with what it looks like to love as Christ loves. In looking at the list above I don't know that I have succeeded, but I can say there is growth.
So what does all this mean? Well, I think if you're reading this there's a reason. I don't believe in chance or coincidence. I believe, if you're here, it's because maybe there's a message here for you. I don't dare say I know why - I have no idea what you're here for - but God does, and that's enough for me. This is, to speak to what I said at the beginning, a portion of what needs to be done.
My mission right now is to share genuine love with people. My ability to keep "that tone" out of my voice, or to always speak lovingly to those around me is not always intact, however, so I am currently learning that love is sometimes also silent. Sometimes love doesn't speak to the person, but speaks instead to the Creator of the person. If there is one lesson I have firmly grasped over the past 25 years it is that I cannot, no matter how hard I try, change a person. I've learned that only God can bring about the change that is necessary. So I speak to Him about the person...and He often reveals to me, with a proverbial arm around my shoulder and a sweet chuckle in the doing, what I need to change or see in the situation I am lifting up. But at 1:17 pm I have the pure joy of pouring out love on others by lifting them up to the throne of grace with confidence regardless of our personal situation.
Every day.
The alarm is set on both phone and watch.
1:17 pm. Prayer.
I don't know what is happening in response, but I know my God is faithful and He bends down to listen. So I pray.
How do you love? Do you love? Do you know the Author of love? Do you want to? I'd be thrilled to introduce you! Leave a comment and let me know. 
(if you know where this photo is from - please let me know. I want to give credit because it is so good!)
Also, I'd enjoy hearing what you are doing to love your neighbor as yourself these days! May you be encouraged....and know I'm praying for you. I may not know your name, but God does. 💓
Be a blessing...
- Trayc
