I’ll never forget the day we went with our children and our friends’ children to see the Lego Movie. There was a sweet little kitty cat character with starry eyes and a tiny voice who, in one unexpected moment, completely lost it. The once precious and innocent one was suddenly transformed into an angry rage monster. It was both startling and hilarious. The scene ended and from a seat or two down from me I heard four-year-old Marleigh say, “I did NOT see that coming!” Of course, her comment made the moment even funnier!
This morning I was doing some reading in a new book I got about how we can learn to resolve conflicts and live in love — truly live out of a place of love for others. As I read I was in agreement with the author on every page. I was writing “Yes!” In the margins and underlining sentences. I felt like we were flowing along together in agreement. “Yeah. We do need to love better. Wow. People need to get it together.” (Yes, I know.)
Then suddenly a picture of a young woman came into my mind. A young woman who challenges my patience and makes my internal eyes roll. I was reading the pages of the book while the movie reel of all my experiences with this person was simultaneously rolling through my mind. I was reading about love while the Lord was showing me all the ways I have NOT loved this young woman or wanted to love her, all the ways I have not given her the benefit of the doubt or tried to see her potential.
Suddenly, I was little Marleigh in the movie theater. “Oh, Lord! I did NOT see that coming!”
My eyes have been opened to a part of myself that I’ve refused to acknowledge. Somehow, somewhere along the way I justified my attitude toward this sweet child of God and forgot to love her, to extend the same radical grace of God to her that He has consistently and unwaveringly extended to me. What have I even been doing? How did I get there?
This is what I need to work on with the Lord. We’re going to spend some time on this one. I have a feeling it’s going to get pretty deep. But you know what? Love is worth it. I am worth it. This young woman is worth it. The world is worth me figuring out why I have been refusing love. So here we go.
Would you join me in this? You don’t have to tell me, but will you tell the Lord? Or maybe you need to ask the Lord to tell you. I’m praying for that. I’m praying that he’ll present you with something you never saw coming and that you’ll receive that and choose to make a change.
You’re worth it. You can do it. We can do it.
I’m rooting for us.
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