As I was waiting for some guys to load up the back of the truck the other day, I was caught off guard as my attention was captured by this little peculiar heart-shaped plant coming out of a cement pillar.
A plant coming out of a cement pillar? This tiny guy was about eye-level. How in the world did this little plant take root in the middle of a cement column? And in the shape of a heart, no less? (Scroll down past image to read more.)
Isn't the life of a believer a continual calling to be like this small, impossible heart-shaped foliage? Sometimes it seems like we go from one challenge to another in this life and we will always have at least one hard-to-love person around...be it a family member, coworker, church member, etc. etc. However, we are encouraged to bloom where we are planted so that the people around us can see evidences of our merciful and loving God lived out in our lives. Is it impossible for us to take root in a cement column? To bloom in an environment that is abrasive and doesn't feel comfortable? Well, if we are trying to do it ourselves in our own strength, then yes. It is impossible. Just like it's impossible for a tiny plant to press it's roots down into a cement barrier. However, Jesus said, "...with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26) That's why in God's divine plan, He made us carriers of the Holy Spirit. He knew we would need the Holy Spirit to continually supply us with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness that only God can give so that we can share it with the people around us. ESPECIALLY the hard-to-love ones.
It's easy to love people who love us. But the glory of God is seen in a much greater contrast when we allow God to use us to show His unconditional love for the ones around us who don't seem to deserve it. Why? Because it's unnatural to love the un-lovely. So when you show love to one of these then everyone sits back and takes notice because it's unnatural. It's not normal. And the contrast between the love we show and the natural love that anyone else might show causes a space that creates interest in knowing what's different about you...giving you the opportunity to share the HOPE that is in you, that is Christ Jesus.
Living in a different culture among different people with different characters and different expectations leaves a lot of room for frustrations, hurt and bitterness. Like, sometimes it feels like there is a chasm between the people I'm called to love and I. Such great risk of frustration, hurt and bitterness. It almost seems more safe to just back away from the edge, create more distance between myself and the un-lovely and just love on the people that are safe to love on my side of the chasm. Less risky for my heart.
For me, I'm living in a third world country with all these differences but perhaps for you, my words identify with you because you sometimes feel as if your workplace were the same, living in a foreign land and feeling like you are a square peg trying to fit in a round hole. Perhaps it is in your very own home that you feel this way. Maybe in your school, or university.
This is where the Holy Spirit comes in. This is where grace and mercy comes in. Did you know that God has placed us strategically to reach the very people that we are less attracted to? The ones that seem risky to reach? What if there has to be this risky chasm between ourselves and the un-lovely so that when we take the impossible steps to reach out to them, people have to take notice and say..."there's something different about this person. What do they see in that "un-lovely" that they would go to all the effort to close the gap to reach them?"
I've had to ask God to help me see people the way He does. I've had to ask Him to help me love with HIS love, because boy, is my love flawed. My love is jaded. The love I muster can be affected by how I'm treated or looked at or talked about or rejected. However, the love that God offers is so different, so pure, so deep and so enduring. It never wavers. This love that God offers you and I is the love that we MUST have flowing through us in order to reach those who have hurt others, those who have "abrasive" personalities, those who speak harshly, or those who have disappointed you time after time.
I had to change my focus. I have stopped asking, "Why must I keep loving them?" and I've had to focus my mind on, "You, Lord, have forgiven me SO many times. You have loved me through my worst. Help me to show the same to so-and-so."
I have to keep connected in prayer and in the Word. If we unplug a lamp from an electrical outlet, it stops shining and the light goes out. It's the same with our connection with the Lord. If we stop taking time in prayer and in the Word seriously, our power source will become weak and we will begin to operate with what we can muster up instead of operating in the fruits of the Spirit. (Galatians 6)
These fruits of the Holy Spirit ultimately become the parts of the bridge that closes that gap between us and the person on the other side of the chasm. As I spend time with the Lord and put into practice the fruits of the Holy Spirit, this bridge forms and creates supernatural opportunities to reach out to the "un-lovely." It's not a one-day process most of the time. Usually it takes time and investment to reach these people. But God has placed us where we are, strategically, because that life is worth it to Him. He wants to rescue them from the place that they are in just as He rescued you and I. And He wants to use YOU and I to do it.
This is a day by day journey. Some days I get it right and others I fail. But the Lord is gracious and He is always near for me to come back to Him and say, "Help me have a heart that honors You and help me to love this person so that they can know who You are and they can be redeemed." The goal is for them to find hope and joy...hope and joy which has been made available to us all.
So, bloom where you are planted, friend. Don't be surprised if you find yourself in a hard, rocky, abrasive terrain. Most likely you are there so that the glory of God can be put on such amazing display that all that are around you will have to agree that your God is the One True God. Look up, look out and let God use you. Don't be afraid of the chasm. God fills in the gaps in His perfect ways. He won't let you fall if you keep holding onto His hand. He will hold you up. Just trust, obey and love. There is a world that needs us to be love and light.
