Yesterday a friend told me some stories from her life. She didn't grow up in the suburbs like me, but as a black woman in South Africa. What she has seen and experienced make my life seem like a bounce on a feather bed. And yet she is joyful, positive, a little crazy maybe (in a good way, in case you ever read this :) but almost always smiling and having a good attitude. And I know why-- its because (to sound really cliche) she loves Jesus. But I don't mean "she love Jesus" like 99% (yes I think probably 99) of Christians do. And I'm not even talking about people who say they're Christians but aren't really. I'm talking about people like me.
I would definitely say I love Jesus. I try to do what he wants. I know that life is better when I'm following him. I try to spend time with him and tell other people that life is better when its in line with his will. But if I am really truly brutally honest, I'm not (yet) motivated by love for him. I'm motivated because, like I said, I know that life is better with him. I know that I can trust his plan more than my own. From Francis Chan, "Do you love this God who is everything, or do you just love everything he gives you?"
The truth is God has given me a whole lot. A great apartment, this cutest golden retriever alive, a husband who loves me more than I could ask, enough money. But he could just as easily take all of that away. I have no right to these things. They are not inherently mine. And if he did, if he did take away all that he's given me, would I still love him? Would I still trust him? Do I love him, or the life he's given me?
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