I am a broken mess.
I am beloved.

Those two truths change my story.

I am prideful and vain. I am selfish. There are times I wake up and discover I am running after all sorts of idols. I speak when I should be quiet. I am silent when I should speak. I erect a personal judgement seat where I critically perch.

And every morning I wake up with the fresh understanding that I am also loved. In spite of my broken mess, I am called child of the King.  Somewhere along the road, I let the knowledge that nothing I can DO for or against my heavenly Father will change the fact that I am His beloved daughter. 

As I have prepared to help facilitate a book study of Love Does by Bob Goff, the simple and yet profound reality of God’s love for his people has washed over me.

Hurt people, hurt people.
Loved people, love people.

Until we wrestle with our own brokenness and come up in victory about our own belovedness, we will struggle with showing love to others.

Until we know that we know just how beloved we are in spite of our brokenness, we will  miss out on the calling to pour out love to others.

And when we allow the truth that we are cherished and delighted in and loved by the Creator of the universe, it can’t help but leak out everywhere. We can’t help but reveal the overflow of our hearts to the world around us.

And THAT is our only responsibility with the brief moments of life we’ve been given.  To be witnesses to the love of Christ by showing love to the world that needs it to overcome its own brokenness.

Boil it down and it’s fairly simple. And it is the hardest, riskiest, most vulnerable thing you will ever be called to do.

Doing love only results when we understand how loved we are.

It’s time to break free and walk as beloved. And then jump into the adventurous, whimsical life that happens when we act as a funnel of love into the world.

1 John 3:16-18 (the Message)

This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear. My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re truly, living in God’s reality.