Life Coaching: 3 Basic Ways to Love Your Life
/He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. - 1 John 5:12
I am writing this today simply because of a discussion I had with my sister, Robyn, this weekend. We were talking about Christianity and lamenting over the inability of us Christians to grasp even the simplest of God’s concepts. We struggle. We dither. We procrastinate. And we disobey. All of us are guilty of one or the other at some point in our lives.
How difficult is it to love our brothers and sisters in Christ? What are we doing every day to show them we are compassionate towards their struggles? How are we walking out that love? In short, what are we doing about it? Today, after I woke up, wiped the crust out of my eyes, let the dogs out (my sister and her dog are staying with me for the week), fixed myself a cup of tea and settled in to write this blog, the conversation of the last few days kept replaying itself in my mind. Then, when I read this verse this morning, it just seemed to fit. Without love, there is no life and without life, there is no love. Love grows and thrives in a life filled environment, and vice versa. Some would argue with this statement, especially someone who has lost a precious loved one. But I would counter that one of the two who loved is still alive; therefore, there is still love and there is still life.
In the verse above, John makes it pretty clear that without the Son of God actively working in our lives, we have no life at all. Therefore, without that life, can we truly love as God intended? I don’t believe so. I have jotted down three simple ways to help us on the pathway to loving our lives:
Love God. This is rather basic, but before we gloss over this and dismiss it, let’s ask ourselves do we really do this, or do we just give lip service to it? We get complacent in our relationship with God at times. It’s easy to love God when the sun is shining on our faces and a full headwind. Not so much when we’re walking through a valley…
Love others. Again, rather basic, but don’t we find it’s much harder to love others than it is to love ourselves? We judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions. The body of Christ is difficult, messy and broken. It’s a difficult brood to love. But if we do, and we lower our expectations, we find peace. We can stop the mental anguish that goes with expectations. Just love ‘em. It’s easier and less stressful to maintain love than it is hatred.
Love life. Ok, basically this one is kind of a gimme. But if we don’t make a conscious effort to love our lives, we end up dissatisfied, bitter, hurt and angry. There are many reasons to hate our lives. Many. Instead of counting the reasons to hate our lives, let’s search for one good reason to love it. We can breathe in and out. That’s miraculous in itself.
One of the reasons I love to read John’s writings is that he keeps it simple. There’s no hidden meaning (well, there’s The book of Revelation, but that’s a topic for another day). Our lives begin and end with Jesus Christ, and He is the One who gives love, gives life, and He is the one it’s impossible to live without.
