Faith Knitted Living

I was reading in one of my favorite books outside of the Bible the other night and was reminded that love is vulnerable. Today is the day that people choose to celebrate love out loud OR it’s the day that those who aren’t in a celebratory mood remind the world that love stinks. I don’t think love stinks, and I definitely don’t believe there’s one day out of the year to remind someone that you love them. Love is an action and should be shown every single day. Let’s talk about the subject though. Love is vulnerable. I think we could all agree that genuine love IS in fact vulnerable. It is a baring of everything you are to someone. Whether that someone is a significant other, family member, or friend, it truly is laying yourself bare. It’s freely giving love without expectation of anything in return. It’s investing even when you don’t feel particularly invested in.

This type of love is DIFFICULT! Especially if you’ve ever been let down or hurt by someone you love. Our natural human instinct in that instant is to put up a guard. Carefully calculate the measure of love and vulnerability we allow to be displayed. We’ve all probably said, “I’ll never let anyone get that close again” or “I’ll never love anyone like that again”. Pretty dramatic given the fact that several of us uttered this early on in life thinking that we would be better off protecting ourselves. In reality, it stifles our ability to connect on the deepest level with someone else, and ultimately can leave us feeling lonely and disconnected.

Over the last few years loving vulnerably is something that I have struggled with in my life. It’s not something I’m particularly proud of because it is not how I chose to be, it was a slow drift of being in survival mode. I am learning through God showing me that in order to be able to love like Jesus does, I have to be vulnerable. It’s scary. It’s easy to let the what ifs creep in and stifle me. I have to go to God’s Word to remind me that HE is love and HE is the love in me. If I believe He is who He says He is, I can love without expectation. I can pray for Him to guard my heart and I can trust that the Holy Spirit will guide me in love relationships.

Back to the favorite book reminder. In the book the author quoted something from C.S. Lewis that I would like to share as a reminder to you, and myself what love is. Before I share that quote, though, God loves YOU! He sent His only son to pay the ultimate price so that YOU could have a relationship with the author and creator of your heart! He loves you right where you are today, and He loves you enough that He wants to liberate you from fear of loving and fear of being loved. Walk with Him and He can change any situation!! It’s in the Bible which is a love letter to you from your Creator!

In C.S. Lewis’ book “The Four Loves”, he wrote: “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

I don’t know about you but I do not want a heart that is impenetrable or irredeemable. God’s Word says that He will replace our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh (softer, if you will). I pray today that your hearts and mine crave the molding of the Holy Spirit to be a little softer, a little more vulnerable, and filled a whole lot more with the love of the Father so that love can be shared with another.

1 John 4:16-19 NLT “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. Sow we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face Him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced His perfect love. We love each other because He loved us first.”