Infinite Worth

hey guys! hope life's going great! If you're anything like me, life's rough, but God is so good! If not, i might have something for ya.

do you know that you are loved? i mean, really loved?

when i use that word, i'm not referring to some kind of physical drive. i'm not talking about whether people care about you or not, and i don't mean to say that your family wants what's best for you. all that's good and well, but most relationships with people only go so far as "like". you "like" somebody when your attracted to something they have. a lot of family's care about each other because they're just use to each other, or because the natural physical genetics of human beings tells them to act in such a way to those with blood ties. most people are friends because they have something in common, or they like each others' personalities, or they like something the other has. people only care about others because they can get something out of them. people want something out of those around them. people like being around you because they get something out of it. they like to be around you because you make them feel better in some way. you make them feel like they are better because they have power over you, or because they feel they need something you have, and therefore they feel like you have power over them. they don't care about you because you're who you are. they care about you because of what you are.

but God is more than human, and He cares about you more than any other person can.

"how precious is your unfailing love, O God! all humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings. " -pslam 36:7

"but God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much," -ephesians 2:4

"and may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is." -ephesians 3:18

"but anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love" -1 john 4:8

over and over again in His word, God says that He is love. the aura of God is love. it is the essence of God, the point of the universe, the meaning of life. God loves. He doesn't just like you. He doesn't want something from you, He wants everything for you. everyone else you will know will like you, will care for you, because of something you give them. He cares about you for what He can give you. He loved you so much that God, the infinite, unmade, master of time and space, the essence of reality, limited himself to the body and mind of a man, lived for 30 years in this mess we call life, and then allowed Himself to be killed on a cross, suffocate to death, and then resurrect Himself to give us the chance to know and love Him.

so... tonight, i got asked the classic question everyone always asks me when i say that God loves them:

"if God loves us so much, why do bad things happen? where's the meaning in all this tragedy?"

i told him as best i could the answer i had, but i didn't have time to address the question thoroughly. so, for all those who are struggling, or are angry at God, or simply want to know why bad things happen, there are a couple of answers, but the one that, to me, speaks the most in my life is this one:

God is a person. God is not a genie, or a santa clause in the sky who gives everyone whatever they want if they behave. He's not some abstract force of good that pushes everything in one direction. He loves you. His very being is bound up in love. the absence of love must have a loveless result, and love must accomplish two things:

1) God is not the source of evil in our world, sin is.

2) love must do what's best for the one who is loved, not what's easiest.

3) love must be chosen or denied

think about what this implies about God.

in our lives, we face struggles, problems, issues, pain, etc. but do these problems come from God? is God the reason there are starving people in africa, or are we? after all, america has the potential farming power to produce enough food to feed all of its citizens and all of africa. however, we'd have to sacrifice our economic supremacy. so, instead of feeding our brothers in africa, we, as parts of the human race who want to live materially better lives, sacrifice the potential to help others for our own security. can you blame God when He's given us the potential to help our brothers, but we don't take responsibility and help them? again, why do people die early? car wrecks happen when people don't do what they're supposed to, or drive under the influence. people kill others through negligence or through hate. people die of diseases often because they don't take care of themselves or others don't take care of them. if we spent as little money as possible on ourselves and put the rest into finding cures for diseases and medical care, and worked as best we could to protect and care for those who can't help themselves, do you honestly think there would be any kind of suffering like there is in the world? before pointing the finger at God, look yourself in the mirror and ask if you have done everything possible (and i mean, literally, everything) for others that you could to help others and protect them from harm or suffering. have you ever hurt someone's feelings? why do you make them suffer? if God has given you the ability to save someone from harm, why haven't you? evil isn't a result of God's negligence, or His will, it's a result of humanity's actions without Him. when we separate ourselves from His love, our priorities become skewed and we fail to care for each other; we become selfish and, in the end, hurt one another and make each other suffer. no one has given up all they have for others, but God gave up His position as God, His power, His life, for humanity to know His love and, in the end, be saved from their suffering.

secondly, true love cares enough to do what's right, not what's easy. toddlers don't like it when they teethe, but parents don't take out their kids teeth before they come in in order to stop the pain (it be kinda gross if they did). they allow their kids to go through the pain, and, when their child cries to them, they give them a chew toy so they can ease as much pain as possible. when you get to a certain age, if your parents don't allow you to choose what you want to do for yourself, we say they're "control freaks" and sheltering you. suffering in itself isn't evil, even if it may come from an evil source. physical "growing pains" aren't evil, they're natural, hard, and the results are maturity, power, and depth. God's our Father. spiritual growth sometimes can't be accomplished simply by God zapping with grace, maturity, authority, wisdom, or love. if He sheltered us from choosing to disobey Him or to do evil to others, or to neglect others, or to hate, or to ignore Him, or to sin, we would be spiritually sheltered. we wouldn't be loved. again, sometimes, you have to struggle to remember to rely on God and His love. sometimes, the only way He can remind you of how much He loves is to let you suffer and rely on Him. if we are never allowed to discover pain if we so choose (since, like we established, we are the source of sin, not God), we aren't really loved, because God isn't doing what's best for us, He's doing what's easiest. and just like the parent who gives their child as much relief as possible while allowing their him to grow, God gives us unfailing love, and His Spirit, and whatever else we need in order to get through whatever we are facing at the time.

finally, love has to be a choice. you can't be forced to love somebody. why is it almost always bad when we see arranged marriages in movies? because the arrangement is attempting to force two people to love each other. they aren't willfully choosing to love each other. if God just made us love Him, and never allowed us to reject Him, He could never love us, and since His aura is love, He can't do that. it is a limitation He has placed upon His very nature that He must love us, and therefore, must give us freedom of choice. but, if we choose to ignore Him, if we choose to ignore the source of love, if we are allowed to choose our own fates, we are allowed to hate, to spite, to ignore, and to kill. so, if God really wants to love us and let us love Him (and each other) He must also allow for us to reject Him and His love and reject (and hurt) each other. that's why there's evil. He has to let us suffer if we so choose, and, whether we realize it or not, we make ourselves and all those around us suffer, most of the time without even thinking about it.

but, whatever suffering comes along, whatever pain you face, whatever challenge is placed in front of you, whatever chaos you cause yourself, know that YOU ARE LOVED!

if the infinite aura of the universe loves you, then you are of infinite worth. you are a treasure worth the universe over! you were worth God's life. there is no way to fathom just how much you are actually worth.

"no power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." -romans 8:39

" do this because you are a people set apart as holy to God, your God. God, your God, chose you out of all the people on earth for himself as a cherished, personal treasure" -deuteronomy 7:6

you are God's treasure! the apple of His eye! people that He has given His love, His life, His self for! there's a song by flyleaf that speaks a lot about this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtEHU5bFbb4&list=QL&playnext=21

love y'all and i'm praying for you! He is with you! you are loved, and you are worth more than you'll ever know!

God bless!