Love is the Answer

What if love really is the reason?
What if we stopped judging and just loved?
What if we accepted ourselves and others with a deep love that transcended sin and hate and intolerance?

These are questions running through my mind lately.

It seems there are plenty of people who are willing to convict us of our own sin.  They willingly stand, plank in eye, and point out the splinter in ours.  They speak of us behind our backs, in hushed tones and prayer requests, throwing the weight of their self-righteousness around.

I'm tired of those people.

I am ready to love them as though they didn't act that way, though.
I'm ready to listen to their hurts and pain and needs.
And reassure them that it will all be OK.

Too many times those who hurt the most are the most hurtful.

It is easy to get caught on that Tilt-O-Whirl.

It is much harder to unbuckle and know that gravity is going to throw you, HARD, onto a new path, one that might be even harder than the painful path you are on.
It takes courage to decide to step off, mid-ride, and let life take you where it will, simply because you are tired of being hurt and hurting others and generally being disagreeable.

You have to want the change, though.

Nobody can create that desire in you.
Only you can decide that change is better than stagnancy.
No amount of someone else WANTING you to change will create anything lasting or meaningful.  At best, change borne out of shame or guilt or posturing is temporary and meaningless.

If love really is the way, it isn't always going to be an easy walk. Just like a life of hate, there will be potholes in the road.

But, instead of the glass being half-full and people being assholes and life being unfair, the perspective will change.
It won't be the world against you, it will be you against the world.  With, if you choose, God as your sidekick.

He believes this whole love thing.
He created this whole love thing.
He asks us to embrace and embody this whole love thing.

Is it time we all get on board?