No Problems?

Recently while I was at church they were discussing the things that Christ taught people to "be" during his sermon on the mount. He began each statement with "blessed are". He gave a list of 9 things to "be". A list that if we followed it and did as he said, we would be blessed. A list that sounds simple but can feel very hard to accomplish when we are in the midst of feeling our feelings.

Often we are trying to be perfect and do these things perfectly. But we are not perfect and often fall short of the mark. In our yearning to be perfect sometimes we ignore our mistakes or try to hide them. When our mistakes become secrets they can have a high price that can be devastating when they are discovered. And our wounds can feel too big and too deep to recover from.

Another thing we may do is wish them away or feel persecuted, why me? Why do we make the association that to be perfect means that we do not have any problems, trials or burdens? And we act as though the only way that God can show he loves us, is if we do not have any problems or trials. Or if we pray, the only way God can show he is listening and he loves us is to take away the problem we are praying over.

If Christ truly is our example in all things then his example shows us the folly in our thinking here. Christ truly was perfect, the only one of us who was, is and will continue to be perfect, without fault or blemish. No other person will ever be able to say the same. In fact we are full of such imperfection that we make mistakes on a daily basis.

Christ who is perfect, lived a life full of problems. He was tempted by the devil continually to misuse and abuse his station, his gifts, and his authority. He was ridiculed, mistreated, threatened, abused, rejected, taunted, demeaned, abandoned, ignored, denounced, betrayed, attacked, humiliated, entrapped, slandered, beaten, accused, punished, etc, etc, etc. The list literally can go on and on. Can any of you sympathize?

He experienced all of this for us, because he loves us. If this was his life, then why do we think our life is supposed to be any different. Why is our life to be the exception when we are here to become like Christ. And even though his life was full of these problems; he loved and was loved.

Loving and being loved does not mean there will be no problems. What it does mean is that you will not be alone when you experience your problems. The more you love and allow yourself to be loved, the more support you will find is there for you when you make your mistakes. Christ is again our example; he didn't give just any old kind of love, he gave unconditional love. It is this love without condition that will support us in our mistakes and imperfection as well as others when they fall short and disappoint or even hurt us with their mistakes. Who says that people only love us if they don't hurt us?

It wasn't just Christ's enemies who did all of these things to him. Some of these things were done by the people closest to him; the ones he called brother and friend. When did the only way a person can show they love us, is by not hurting us or causing us pain? Especially when we make mistakes that hurt the ones we love all the time. We know we made these mistakes and we love them; and yet we hold others to this different condition of, to love me is not to hurt me.

People make mistakes and it can hurt. But what truly hurts us and causes us our deepest heartache, sorrow and grief are the conditions that we are putting on love and life. It is these self-created prisons and self-inflicted pain that is in the way of our greatest happiness. If we put it there, then we have the power to remove it.

We can make a different choice and embrace a different way of thinking. We can remove the conditions we are putting on ourselves, on our lives, on others, on love and on God. We can strive for perfection and embrace our imperfections that lead to mistakes, which are merely learning and growing experiences. We can embrace a life that is filled with problems through grace and patience, and by doing so come to know what God is trying to teach us. We can experience problems while loving and being loved in all its messiness. And we can forgive; forgive ourselves, forgive others, and forgive God. It's that simple; the easiness or hardness is up to us and what conditions we decide to embrace.

I don't know about you but I know that for me, I choose to serve the Lord and receive of his unconditional love. And come what may, I will strive to reflect that unconditional love in my life to the best of my ability, problems and all.