Life is full of difficult circumstances. The ups and downs. Hurts and joys. Life, a gallery of artwork. Changing of seasons. Life.

Life is full of choices. Decisions to be made.The slow and quick. The rushing of years and the crawling of minutes. Life.

Life involves risk and giving, giving of self. In love. In friendship. In parenting. Life.

Last week I wrote of vulnerability. The choice to be open, honest, real. The choice to give love a chance. The choice to build trust. How are you doing? Have you let God work in that area or have you locked the door?

I had a situation this weekend. A situation where I had been hurt before. A place that still feels raw when rubbed. I wanted to slam the door and run in the other direction. I did not want to face the uncomfortable. I did not want to be vulnerable.

While so much of me resisted there was a greater work being done. In God’s strength, I walked on. I faced the difficult, the ugly, the uncomfortable. In the end, I walked away encouraged. It wasn’t some beautiful, grand moment I will remember forever however it was a step, another plank on the bridge of trust between me and another.

I can’t see it now. I don’t know where our relationship is going yet I do know it was worth it. It was worth the uncomfortable in order to build.

When we shy away from the opportunities to build trust we are doing ourselves and others an injustice.  We are losing a gift. Throwing out an opportunity to grow.

What profit is there in investing only in relationships that are easy? Are we growing there? Growing in the likeness of Christ?

 

Luke 6:32-36 “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much!  And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return. “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. NLT

1 John 3:16-18 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. ESV

1 Corinthians 13:4-7  Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. NLT

Mark 12:31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ’There is no other commandment greater than these.” NKJV