Who Will Love Me for Me?

We all have baggage. Some of us have so much that it seems like it will never be gone. The things we have done in the past, our emotions, our relationships- anything that seems to hold us back from pursuing our future. And, yet, while we struggle with our own baggage, we are quick to judge others for something in their history. How can we move beyond these judgments and truly love as Jesus did?

God really hit me hard yesterday with this idea. I work in an alternative school where the students are here because something they have done in their past. I constantly hear from other people, “How can you work with those kids? Are they really bad? What kind of stories do you have from working there? Do you feel safe?” Without even having looked at my student body, people are judging based on the assumptions they have about “those” kids. I had a student ask me yesterday , “Bobbie, how am I ever going to do well in life when no one will forget what I have done?”

Sidenote: Listen to the song posted, “What Love Really Means” by JJ Heller.
Who will love me for me
Not for what I have done or what I will become
Who will love me for me
Cause nobody has shown me what love
What love really means

Wow. Here is an 18 year old young man sitting in my class who feels that there is no chance in life for anyone to move beyond what he has done and to see him for who he is. And, unfortunately, I can’t blame him for feeling this way because it is a reality in our society. That is, until we move towards Christ’s love- the unconditional love of a Savior.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

If we are truly to love others, we have to love like Jesus did. Not only because we are commanded to do so, but because they will know we are Christians if we do so. Furthermore, how can we, as sinners, liars, adulterers, slanderers, and so many more unclean things, truly look at someone and say that their past is undeserving of love when Jesus loved us so much to look past our pasts and die on the cross!

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
~Philippians 2:5-8

If he can make Himself nothing, surely we can make ourselves agents of love to His people.
One of the things that I love about my relationship is that we don’t know a lot about each other’s past because we didn’t go to the same school, know the same people, etc. Everything about the relationship is fresh. I appreciate this not because we have something to hide, but that there is something beautiful in loving someone for who they are at that moment in time. Yes, while we uncover some “baggage” in each other’s lives, there will be some hurt, shame, or fear, but the love (if it is centered on Christ) will move beyond those things. If either of us had started by judging the other based on WHAT we knew instead of WHO we knew (each other and, more importantly, God), we might not have been able to move on.

How many of our daily relationships and interactions are based on WHO (Christ) we know and not WHAT we know. Not to mention, many times WHAT we know is very minimal. How can you love someone IN SPITE of their past today? Afterall, how many things does Jesus love you IN SPITE OF?

REMEMBER:
If you are the only Christ people see, what will they know about Him?

But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me
I am the thorn in Your crown
But You love me anyway
I am the sweat from Your brow
But You love me anyway
I am the nail in Your wrist
But You love me anyway
I am Judas’ kiss
But You love me anyway
See now, I am the man that called out from the crowd
For Your blood to be spilled on this earth shaking ground
Yes then, I turned away with this smile on my face
With this sin in my heart tried to bury Your grace
And then alone in the night, I still called out for You
So ashamed of my life, my life, my life
But You love me anyway
Oh, God… how you love me
~ Love Me Anyway
Sidewalk Prophets

Faith Without Works?

James 2:14-26

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? ¹⁵If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ¹⁶and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good^a]"> is that? ¹⁷So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

One of my biggest pet peeves is the person who acts like they are everyone’s best friend. Correction: the person who “talks” like they are everyone’s best friend. Let’s call that person Sally. Sally has a story to tell about everyone you seem to know. You mention someone’s name and Sally starts talking about them like they have known each other for 15 years. In actuality, you know that the so called “ best friend” really has only heard of that person – maybe they have had one class together, maybe they ride the same bus, work in the same office building, etc. However, you know that Sally and that person have never shared an intimate conversation, spent long periods of time together, shared stories, or gone out together. Sally is all talk- she doesn’t know the person. She just “knows of” the person. They are not best friends. After all, best friends DO AND SHARE THINGS TOGETHER.

However, I began to think about the verses found in James 2. Here it discusses how faith without works is like the Sally. How can I claim to be a Christian and talk about it like Christ and I are best friends, but never do anything to prove that I am a Christian. I hear it all the time, “Yes, I believe in God. I go to church once in a while. I know God loves me.” Now this isn’t to say that a Christian’s walk is going to be perfect- everyone falters and makes mistakes, but there must be some evidence of your “friendship” with Christ in your life. Without it, you being to become like Superficial Sally who knows a little about a lot of people, but not a lot about one person. You might even know a lot about Christ, but are you proving that you are “friends?” Do you read your Bible, pray, serve others, etc? After all, Christians DO AND SHARE THINGS TOGETHER WITH GOD.

On a slightly different note, I find myself sometimes acting like the person mentioned in James who sends those in need off without actually meeting their needs. Imagine if Sally did have a conversation with that “friend” everyday, but it never went deeper than that. Then maybe we could claim they are friends. But aren’t “true friends” the ones who you can call no matter how you are feeling, the ones you want to spend times with, the ones who would support you? Again, what type of love am I showing if I am only having those surface conversations with those around me? I sometimes quickly dismiss my concern with an “I’ll pray for you” or “I’m so sorry to hear that.” What kind of love is this? CHRISTIANS DO AND SHARE THINGS WITH OTHERS.

Now the question also comes in, do we need works to be saved? The answer is no (see Ephesians 2:8-9). You have been saved by faith, not by works. On the Lies Young Women Believe Website, it is summed up nicely.

“You cannot claim Christ with your works, but works show that Christ has a claim on you. I am so grateful that my works are not what gets me into heaven! My works are like "filthy rags" compared to what Christ did for me. But works are a result of my faith, and if I have no works, then it is likely that I have no faith.”

Put it this way- in my relationship with my boyfriend, I do not expect him to love me for the things that I do. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to be with someone who placed such high expectations on me and only valued me for what I could offer him. However, because I care about him, I am willing to do things to prove how I feel. When you love someone, you do things to show it. Shouldn’t it be the same with God? If my relationship was solely based upon all that I could do for someone (or God in this case), then it would be over as soon as I failed. In the case of Sally, it never existed. However, the time spent with a person, the conversations had, etc. are outpourings of how we feel. Would you believe me if I claimed to be someone’s girlfriend if I never talked to them , talked about them, or interacted with them? Would you believe someone is a Christian if they never talked to Christ, shared the Gospel, or behaved like they should? The answer is probably no. After all, we are so quick to judge Sally who seems to know everyone but doesn’t. Maybe we should examine our lives and see if we have works showing our faith.

Ask yourself: If you are the only Christ people see, what will they know about him?

Surely life wasn't made to regret
And the lost were not made to forget
Surely faith without action is dead
Let Your Kingdom come
Lord break this heart

And I will live
To carry on compassion
To love a world that's broken
To be Your hands and feet
And I will give
With the life that I've been given
And go beyond religion
To see the world be changed
- Lincoln Brewster, "Power of Your Name"