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