dying to self

Some people are easy to love. 

Some people are hard to love. 

I'm not talking about romantic love here - I'm talking about the love that will listen to the happy stories, the funny stories, the sad stories, and the painful stories equally willingly.  I'm talking about the love that values you as a human. Period. I'm talking about the love that will spend 3 hours to take you to and from the doctor's office. I'm talking about the love that passes over quirks and flaws to see the personality beneath. 

There are some people whose quirks are so prominent that they can fill your vision, if you let them, so that it is impossible to see and love the human beneath.  There are some people who seem so needy that it tires me to even think about helping them, loving them.  I would rather stick to loving and helping the people in my immediate circle of friends - people I already know and love.  But this is not how The Body is to work.  This is not how The Body is supposed to behave.  This is not how The Body is supposed to relate to each other. 

Scripture teaches us that we are to love sacrificially, as Jesus did.  I can tell myself this over and over, as I have done. I can preach to myself, I can reason with myself, I can make myself feel guilty for not doing things, but this will not be enough.  It is only through the transformation of my heart that I can love like this.  And it is only through divine intervention that my heart will be transformed. 

So the question is, am I brave enough to ask for it?

death

I've been trying to memorize Romans 8 with a friend of mine lately. 

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 8:5-6

Something happened to me this weekend that got me thinking about these two verses. The what is not so important, but the thoughts that came from it are.  

I could act upon my desires, desires which are perfectly good and right when responded to in the right context, but to do so would make a bit of my soul die.  Acting on God-given desires in a fleshly way is to deny that the God-given way of acting on them is not worth it. or viable. or good. or best. 

It would kill a bit of me to deny the best way.  I would have to suppress the part of me that wants to do good to act this way.  Of course, to suppress the part of me that wants to be fleshly is also to kill that part of me...but it's good part to kill. It's the part of me that will die anyway. 

So. I could probably say all of this better when I'm not so tired, but such is life.  I am tired now. I have time now.