Author: Bellissiwarriors

Airports are emotional places. People embrace joyfully, kiss passionately, cry openly, wait expectantly for that first (or last) glimpse. The intensity can be exhausting. In some ways, the unpleasant parts of traversing an airport help ease that emotional burden. Any sorrow about departing is erased in the hustle and stress of making sure you make it to the gate on time. Your focus switches from what you’re leaving behind to what lies ahead.

Near the end of his life, Peter wrote a letter to encourage believers undergoing persecution. He says, “The end of all things is near” (1 Peter 4:7). I suppose you could construe it as a warning – Time’s running out, better get your act together. But maybe it’s a consolation – You’re almost to the end of your journey. Keep your focus on what lies ahead. 

I haven’t faced persecution, but I have been worn out and ready for change. If that sounds like you right now, can I encourage you to hang in a little while longer? Don’t discount the unexpected workings of God. Joseph’s brothers were saved from starvation by the brother they had sold into slavery (Genesis 50:20). Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were saved after they were thrown into the furnace (Daniel 3). The officials who opposed the reconstruction of the Temple were ordered to finance the building project (Ezra 5:2-6:12). The wise men didn’t find the Messiah in the palace, but in a stable (Matthew 2:1-11).

Maybe the best part of your story will begin after whatever you’re going through right now. God’s timing isn’t subject to our desires. He orders all things according to His perfect plan to save and redeem Creation (2 Peter 3:9). It’s easy to get bogged down in circumstances, to let worry or pain or sorrow occupy the battleground of your thoughts and get so focused on the journey, that you forget the destination. But when you do that, you lose track of where you are. You don’t even know if you’re in the homestretch. So look up! “Set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God’s right hand in the place of honor and power. Let heaven fill your thoughts” (Colossians 3:1-2). Keep your focus on the One who lies ahead and He will give you fresh strength to endure the journey.

I enjoy a good romantic comedy, but they’re pretty predictable. Boy and girl meet. Something stands in the way of their being together but because they love one another, they overcome all obstacles to be together. Swell music. Seal with a kiss. Cue the credits. The formula works – according to statista.com, 2021 was a low-earnings year for romantic comedies and they still managed to gross about $1.36 million in the North American market. That dramatic moment feels good. But that’s just the beginning of the real story. While all love may start with affection, real love keeps going. It keeps growing. 

There’s something wrong if the tender shoots of warm feelings in another’s company never grow deep roots. Love without roots will soon wither. But love with roots endures. Paul describes it this way – “Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured. It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]” (1 Corinthians 13:4-6 AMP).

Paul’s not talking about warm feelings. He’s talking about the very practical nature of love that puts up with much and overlooks wrongs and hangs on to the very end. It’s love in the context of a broken world under the curse of sin. That kind of love doesn’t happen overnight. It requires maturity.

What’s the mark of maturity? Being able to discern and act on what’s best regardless of personal sentiment, convenience, or preference. Love that’s based on how you feel is childish. Even a toddler can love people they like. What God wants is for His love in us to expand to such fullness that it bursts through the barriers that sin has erected and overflows to everyone, everywhere, even our enemies. That’s the kind of love that the Father has for us (Matthew 5:43-48). That’s the kind of love Jesus demonstrated for us on the cross. 

In spite of immense personal agony, Jesus didn’t ask for His pain to be lessened or His suffering to be diminished. He didn’t pray for His enemies to be punished or for the rightness of His position to be defended. He looked out from the cross full of compassion and asked God to forgive us. That is real love. That is how we are loved. That is how we are to love one another. 

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God - for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. 1 John 4:7-10