Disney Movies and Chicago

I haven't posted since April 28th...oops! But let us not dwell on the past.

I recently took a trip to Turkey. Yes, it was as amazing as it sounds. And though I completely intend on telling you all the juicy details that is not what this post is about.

One my way across big blue I had a stupid long layover in Chicago, stupid long as in 15 hours! We managed to kill the time (thanks for coming along Tyler!), but there comes a time when a 15 hour layover breaks a person and you resort to terrible things in order to survive.

So I committed the crime and began watching 90's Disney movies on YouTube. Only God can judge me.

I chose a classic, because I am a classy girl. Wish Upon a Star, featuring a very young Katherine Heigl. I don't want to get to deep into the thick and complex plot line, so I will summarize. Two sisters, one is cool and one is not. They wish upon a star (duh) and switch bodies, they only can switch back when they realize they love each other, and blah blah blah.

There is a part in the movie where the older sister's super dreamy BF confesses his undying love for her, but of course everything is complicated because of the whole switched body thing and she doesn't say it back. More drama ensues, some teenage angst (#thestruggleisreal) and Mr. McHottie yells,

 "I don't love you, because true love is a reciprocated thing! You have never loved me!" 

Harsh, I know (don't worry there is a happy ending).

When I heard that I froze. I literally paused the movie and thought about that statement, "I don't love you, because true love is a reciprocated thing!" Okay, you need to cool it Mr.McHottie, because you have it all backwards.

Listen, I am 23 years YOUNG, but if its one thing I have taken away from this world is that it is usually a privileged to receive the love that you extend. I know this partially because that is why it was hard for me to give it. Out of fear that it would be rejected, used, or abused. In which I wasn't offering love, but trying to gain acceptance and approval. Trying to gain some one else's love. These are two, rather large, examples of how true love doesn't worry about whether not it will be return.

My Relationship with God:

Most people reading this blog know the basics. Lets all quote John 3:16 together. Ready, 1,2,3, "for God so loved the world"... but do we really grasp that? There are so many times when I do not realized the weight, the real gravity of God's love for me. I can be totally oblivious to His sovereign goodness.

I have told this story a million times, and I will tell it a million more to make a point. When I was living overseas I turned into someone I didn't know I could be. I willfully withheld my love from those around me. It was awful. When I finally came to my senses and repented I cried out to God for forgiveness and sanctification. I wanted Him to "fix" the problem, my insecurity and pride, and to be able extend love with out condition, but rather than fixing me, He wanted to show me. He said to me (very dramatically might I add) the He loved me just as much in that moment of total gross, nasty, ugly depravity as He did when I first called Him my Savior, just as much as when I was Ms.Perfect in College, and that He would continue to love me until the end of time, whether I changed or not. What the Heck!

Listen, I was reared in a conservative Christian church. I know the rules. I know how it works, you do good you are good, you do bad you are bad. So, who the Hell did God think He was doing telling me that He loved me when I was choosing to NOT love others (ultimately not loving Him, 1 John 4:7-8)? Oh wait, He is God, He can do that kind of stuff. He saw that my heart was tender towards His rebuke. He knew I was ready to grow.

Look, I don't know how that messes with your theology, but the point is that God chose to love us WAY before it was "Reciprocated".

My Relationship with People:

To further drive His point home while I was living overseas He gave my team, the same ones I was NOT loving, this amazing capacity to love me and extend grace in a very challenging time. I experienced genuine and true unconditional love. It wasn't the first time, but it was the first time it clicked. Like a light bulb I realized all the people through out my life who have sacrificially loved me and not because I loved them back, but because they had a real revelation of what love is.

My Gran is another amazing example of a woman that I have seen discipline herself for the sake of loving others. She has always seen me as God does. She has always believed in me or at least she is a great actor if she hasn't.

Of course we all can share stories of how we have been touch and moved by the love of others when we didn't deserve. Or times when we gave love and it was reciprocated and that is great!

My hope is that I really have learned from example. That I spread love radically and blindly. That I give it with out condition or circumstance. It sounds reckless,  I'll let you know if it back fires. In the mean time I strongly suggest that you try it. That you take time to ponder, meditate, pray, whatever you want to call it, on what love with absolutely NO conditions looks like, what does it feel like? Who are you not showing that kind of love to, and vise versus? How does it change your day? Your life? Or more importantly the days and the lives of others. I suggest after you think about those things to read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 out loud, pausing and thinking of how practical it is.

What is love? You might start by reading this stuff, John 15:13, 1 John 4:7-21, Mark 12:30-31, Luke 6:35, Ephesians 4:2.