Monday, 21 March 2011

A Measure of Success




"Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end] " (1 Corin 13.8). Awards and 'stuff' collect dust and have no eternal value, whereas every individual is as valuable as you think YOU are. Let's not treat people as if they're 'stuff' too, for surely when our lives pass away the only thing that really counts for anything is how we treated people. If you love the people in your world with everything you have ... even when it hurts, if you truly embrace forgiveness and seek to give to others, not ‘get’ from others - then you have achieved ultimate success. Don't be so hard on yourself if you don't have shelves stacked full with stuff - because people are the prize. May our capacity to love and give continue to expand until we take our final breaths!

Now this doesn’t mean it’s wrong to have dreams to achieve all we can with our talents – (indeed it would be wrong not to), but just not at the cost of others. Our determination should always be out of a desire to bless others with the talents we’ve been given. If you invest all your time and energy into the pursuit of stuff and none of it into people - you might die with a full bank balance but your heart will be empty. (If we never give to others, then we’ll never receive from others). Also, there’s the problem of trying to ‘climb the ladder’ at the cost of standing on people on the way up - eventually the ladder will fall down at some point because no one will actually want to hold it for you when you reach the top.

The same can be said about investing all our energy into maintaining the outside, but neglect to invest into developing our souls. Society seems to tell us (or rather scream at us), that if every inch of us isn’t nipped, tucked, polished, plumped and rebuilt (to which there is no end!) then we’re not at our finest! Well all that may make us appear attractive on the outside to some extent, but if no effort goes into ‘beautifying our souls’, then our neglected heart is going to be pretty ugly. Sadly it’s our hearts that are our most attractive asset – but get the least attention from ourselves.

You might not like the way your heart looks now, maybe life has been cruel to it and it’s hardened in retaliation or survival, but our hearts are mouldable and can be remade. Your heart can become all that you want it to be, you have the capacity to love far beyond that which you currently think you can. BUT it takes effort, a bit of ‘weeding’ may be necessary (says one rather experienced in ‘weeding’ - I love the definition of weeding “to remove wild plants from a place where they are not wanted” indeed those weeds have no business taking root in your heart in the first place). However, most of all you have to be willing to risk above what you fear (that’s the hard part!). But it’s always worth the cost because "love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end] indeed it is the only constant in life of which the value never diminishes, and is surely worth fighting for above anything else. Do not surrender your heart to fear, because when you do you revoke your capacity to love and by doing so … miss out on love.

PS: The ‘’LOVE DISCLAIMER”: please don’t miss the point and assume that by my referral to ‘love’ I mean ‘romantic feelings’. Indeed if you are fortunate enough to have a spouse then yes, love them with everything you have, do not take them for granted, count it an honour that they offer you their heart and always determine to reveal more of yours. But please don’t think that ‘romantic love’ is the ultimate definition of love. Sadly a lot of people think the sum total of love = 2 (these same people usually find themselves incredibly disillusioned later in life). Indeed the world is made up of a much larger population than just little pockets of two - the world’s need for love goes far beyond that equation. Love, although undeniably impossible to define, is ultimately to be an extension of ourselves given in which we don’t seek to receive in return. ‘Romantic love’ unfortunately can be the most confusing love of all as rarely is it selfless in nature and is often abusive in its desire to take. Though the same fundamentals still apply – seek to give and you’ll receive, but seek to take and you’ll destroy.

Saturday, 26 February 2011

Getting to the Heart of the Matter


I wonder what the world would look like if we could see peoples’ hearts on the outside. I think if we could see all the hearts in tatters, the hearts in cages, the hearts in hiding, the boarded up hearts, the bleeding hearts, all the scared hearts … then we’d treat people with a whole lot more grace and compassion. I think that if we could see all the big hearts, the brave hearts, the happy hearts - our hearts would be stirred, encouraged, hopeful.

It’s easy to think that we can’t see the heart of people, but really when we look at the outside ‘symptoms’ we see the heart anyway.

Those who have ‘hard edges’ have a hurt heart that’s afraid to trust, those with downcast eyes have a bleeding hard, those who are jumpy need to understand the power of their own heart & not discredit it. They all need our grace, they need our love and to borrow our courage. Those who are brave have a heart that has overcome much, those with big hearts and a lot of love, have made a choice not to let hurt take root – those with boarded up hearts need to know this is possible. Those with happy hearts are a hope to all of what can be – the world needs to see the light of happy hearts.

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (Prov 4:23) – the heart is quintessential to living a full life. If all this ‘heart talk’ is pinching yours, then your heart needs instant medical attention of the emotional healing variety. This isn’t a negative thing – it’s a necessary thing that results in freedom. What’s in darkness, (the things buried deep at the bottom of your heart) need to come out to the light. Here’s what happens when you dig them out. It will hurt. It will hurt A LOT, in fact it will be agonising ... initially. Those ‘memories’ will kick and scream all the way out and you’ll want to send them right back to the tomb at the bottom of your heart & pretend they’re not there. But here’s what happens when you bring them out - in the light they lose their power. In the light (like vampires) which is the perfect analogy actually (because those memories are blood sucking leaches that will eventually drain your heart of all its life) – will be destroyed when they come into the light. You might be thinking ‘oh that all sounds a bit simple’? It is. Think about going into a dark room, you can’t see a thing, it’s confusing and you’re handicapped, you might be fearful. But the second you flick on that light switch the darkness is destroyed, you can see – no more confusion and you’re free to go about your business.

But this isn’t just a ‘flag’ of attention for the broken hearted, it’s a reminder to those whose hearts are in a position of strength at the moment (to remember that we’ve all known the weight of sadness at some point). The world is hurting, there are so many who need you to notice them. “Men and women look at the face, but God looks into the heart” (1 Sam 16:7) – shouldn’t we too look to this example, for don’t we want others to care more about what’s inside of us than just accept the outside as though that’s all there is? There are people whose hearts are so fragmented that they need to borrow some strength from yours. They need to hear your story – to understand restoration, to know there is hope. They need to be noticed, not according to the outside, but that deeper look that says ‘I don’t just notice you – I CARE’.

Jesus cared very much about the state of people’s hearts “He has sent me to bind up and heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the [physical and spiritual] captives and the opening of the prison and of the eyes to those who are bound” (Isaiah 61 Amp). The heart is a very valuable thing. It’s time for you to address the power of yours, if it’s sick then great news … IT CAN BE WELL. If it’s well … great news IT CAN BE EVEN STRONGER! There is sooo much power in the human heart and here’s the really great news … WE ALL HAVE ONE!! (I know … NEWS FLASH!) But here’s the thing, a lot of us don’t always really use our hearts fully and we really need to start to think about doing so … to ponder how the world could look if we actually start living life from the heart.

I think it might be a nicer place, don’t you? x