Continual Change

       I am a girl who continually changes...for the better. The way I see it, I am an unfinished product continually changing in my life. I see things that need improvement. The one thing that I see at this current time in my life is unconditional love. I seriously don't think that too many people really know how to practice this, and in no way can it be perfected without the Holy Spirit's leading and guidance. I was talking to my dad, and I asked him how it was that he seemed to have more of a passion for Christianity than the average person. He said it was because he couldn't live without God...he said to me, "Maybe you can, Elizabeth, but I can't. I know I can't do anything in my own power." That struck me to my inner core. How is it that we, as Christians, think that we can do something without God? How is it that we've become so proud in our everyday lives that God gets pushed to the back burner. We reach out to Him only when we need something...we fall on our faces when we know that we are floundering or failing. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe we fall so much is because it's just not the way we are supposed to be living the Christian life, living alone and without God's help? No, I don't think God brings us to these points just for that reason...instead, we bring ourselves to that point...that is the consequence for living "alone."
       Back to unconditional love...what is unconditional love? I have tried to define it many many times in many different ways. I can't define it. I can feel it through my Saviour. Not too many people on this earth practice it, but when you meet someone who does, it's not only rare, it's anointed and holy. I do know what it isn't...it isn't saying, "I love you," and then being unforgiving and not letting go of the past. It isn't writing, "I love you," and then expecting some reciprocation. It isn't saying you love someone and then constantly telling them what they did or didn't do that week. It isn't seeing someone fall and letting them stay there. It isn't saying, "I'll pray for you," and not meaning it and never doing it. It isn't saying, "I'm here for you. If you need anything, let me know," and then when the need comes to your attention, giving every excuse in the book as to why you can't really help. It isn't judging someone and not admitting that it's judging but instead telling them it is because of love. Friend, that isn't unconditional love! It isn't gossiping about a person by telling the person you are speaking to, "We should pray for so and so because of...." Why do we think that's okay? Why do we think that we have any right to tell someone something about someone else on the act of a "prayer request?" It's not a prayer request...it's another form of gossip! Let me stop here for a minute and say that we've all been guilty of these things including me! I'm not writing for one particular person...if anything, I am listing for myself what I truly believe unconditional love ISN'T!
       So, what IS unconditional love? I really don't know the exact definition, but I do know ONE person who truly lived that life and that was Jesus Christ, Himself. He was the perfect example. He walked this earth, and boy, did He have enemies! If anyone was mistreated, it was Him. People misunderstood Him! He never answered someone when they tried to pick an argument with Him. He loved the harlot that the Pharisees brought to Him. My favorite phrase in that story was, "Let him that is without sin cast the first stone." Seriously, we aren't better than any one single person down here on Earth. He loved the sinner yet hated the sin. Even on the cross, His famous words, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!" He forgave these men that beat him beyond recognition...these men who spit in His face...these men who denied who He really was. Can we do this? It's humanly impossible, my Friend! It really is. We cannot truly forgive someone without the help of God! I know I can't. I have come  to terms with some things in my life that has happened to me in the past, and I can't move forward without God's help. It's humanly impossible. Even in my darkest moments, I couldn't deny that God's very presence with me. Even as my tears fell many nights and no one knew the excruciating pain my heart was in, God still was there and loved me unconditionally. Even when I felt as if no one would truly love me again, He NEVER stopped loving me. So, can I define this unconditional love? Well, maybe not to the best of my ability, but I can point to Someone who practiced it down here on Earth and who still practices it daily in my life.
       Continual change...something we should be doing down here. We haven't arrived! There is SO much to learn each and every day of our lives! So, don't stop working on the inside as well as the outside. You will be a better person for it!