Ephesians 6:12
For we are not struggling against human beings, but against the rulers, authorities and cosmic powers governing this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.
For we are not struggling against human beings, but against the rulers, authorities and cosmic powers governing this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.
In the deepest thoughts in my mind, I'm acutely aware of human struggling. My eyes see evidence of this in every corner of the world as well as in my own home. Humans wage war with each other searching desperately for someone or something to blame for what has gone wrong. I am no different.
If we can just identify the problem well enough then we can find a solution. As if what we can see will give us answers. I'm only beginning to understand that the real problem will remain unseen.
Our minds constantly look to visually identify and label what the problem is, then find the correct problem solving flow chart to implement the result into another label of problem solved. Maybe it's just me. Maybe my tendency to define a simple solution. Maybe simply the want of an easy way out. Something rational..... something logical.... something tangible.
If only we can identify what we did wrong in places of pain, then it becomes possible to do it differently and imagine how hurt won't happen again. If we cannot identify our own wrongness then someone else must be at fault and we can assign permission to anger as our protection from hurt. We see brokenness everywhere. Pain and people reacting. Either in self blame which causes more destruction or blame placed elsewhere driving continued external destruction. Isn't it strange that either direction adds destruction.
We do have an enemy. John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
It is ironic that in trying to identify the problem and who the enemy is, we often end up becoming his partner and continuing his work. It is truly the easy way out to put human skin on enemy actions and play into the destruction.
We know this struggle well because the war is often in our own heads. The war resides in our thoughts. Will we choose to live only by what we can see? What we see is just a symptom of the struggle. Focusing on the symptoms never brings healing, it just covers up the problem.
We are all in this together. When our minds convince us otherwise we end up on the wrong side by default. We are all struggling to become who we were born to be and we continue fighting a losing battle by fighting amongst ourselves.
I will not take the perspective that difficulties, in someone else's struggle in learning to be who God says they are, is the problem. Broken glass is not a sign to label us as broken people. Yes it is a sign of a struggle. It is outward and it is what is seen. It is not a problem. I'm grateful to have different eyes to see. I'm glad for a marker of struggle to replace with love and grace in a simple tangible way.
I'm truly thankful for the people in my life who allow me to bear witness to struggle. I'm happy to see an alive world of struggle not carefully masked of in perfectIonism. It allows freedom in my own lack of perfection. It also gives a very clear reminder that through my own imperfectIons I can still be perfectly loved.
My fellow humans, we are not enemies to each other even through disagreement. We do not have to continue to agree with the only enemy we have and destroy each other or ourselves. Our struggle is against unseen darkness not against humans who were created in God's image. This is universal not just for those who agree with each other. When we can care more about a person than their behavior or their beliefs, then we can love them well. We don't need to fear what people do or don't do. We don't need to be afraid of the dark. We have a greater force at work within us.
1 John 4:7-21
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
How amazing is it to have freedom to simply love people through the struggles. Could this really be a problem free life we've been given? Not to say that living in struggle and the mess of midprocess is easy, but we are free from the condemnation of blame. We are ok even in the horrific mess of living on a planet in major struggle. We already know the end of the story. This gap of struggle is simply finding our role in the middle places of the story, while accepting the grace over our own messy becoming.
If we can just identify the problem well enough then we can find a solution. As if what we can see will give us answers. I'm only beginning to understand that the real problem will remain unseen.
Our minds constantly look to visually identify and label what the problem is, then find the correct problem solving flow chart to implement the result into another label of problem solved. Maybe it's just me. Maybe my tendency to define a simple solution. Maybe simply the want of an easy way out. Something rational..... something logical.... something tangible.
If only we can identify what we did wrong in places of pain, then it becomes possible to do it differently and imagine how hurt won't happen again. If we cannot identify our own wrongness then someone else must be at fault and we can assign permission to anger as our protection from hurt. We see brokenness everywhere. Pain and people reacting. Either in self blame which causes more destruction or blame placed elsewhere driving continued external destruction. Isn't it strange that either direction adds destruction.
We do have an enemy. John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
It is ironic that in trying to identify the problem and who the enemy is, we often end up becoming his partner and continuing his work. It is truly the easy way out to put human skin on enemy actions and play into the destruction.
We know this struggle well because the war is often in our own heads. The war resides in our thoughts. Will we choose to live only by what we can see? What we see is just a symptom of the struggle. Focusing on the symptoms never brings healing, it just covers up the problem.
We are all in this together. When our minds convince us otherwise we end up on the wrong side by default. We are all struggling to become who we were born to be and we continue fighting a losing battle by fighting amongst ourselves.
I will not take the perspective that difficulties, in someone else's struggle in learning to be who God says they are, is the problem. Broken glass is not a sign to label us as broken people. Yes it is a sign of a struggle. It is outward and it is what is seen. It is not a problem. I'm grateful to have different eyes to see. I'm glad for a marker of struggle to replace with love and grace in a simple tangible way.
I'm truly thankful for the people in my life who allow me to bear witness to struggle. I'm happy to see an alive world of struggle not carefully masked of in perfectIonism. It allows freedom in my own lack of perfection. It also gives a very clear reminder that through my own imperfectIons I can still be perfectly loved.
My fellow humans, we are not enemies to each other even through disagreement. We do not have to continue to agree with the only enemy we have and destroy each other or ourselves. Our struggle is against unseen darkness not against humans who were created in God's image. This is universal not just for those who agree with each other. When we can care more about a person than their behavior or their beliefs, then we can love them well. We don't need to fear what people do or don't do. We don't need to be afraid of the dark. We have a greater force at work within us.
1 John 4:7-21
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
How amazing is it to have freedom to simply love people through the struggles. Could this really be a problem free life we've been given? Not to say that living in struggle and the mess of midprocess is easy, but we are free from the condemnation of blame. We are ok even in the horrific mess of living on a planet in major struggle. We already know the end of the story. This gap of struggle is simply finding our role in the middle places of the story, while accepting the grace over our own messy becoming.