on learning to love...

while praying for this summer, God has been teaching me quite a bit about loving Him and loving others...loving freely and unreservedly...loving as He does.  In this time, a few things have really struck me and I'd like to share a couple of them...

...and excerpt from "My Utmost for His Highest"...'If human love does not carry a man beyond himself, it is not love. If love is always discreet, always wise, always sensible and calculating, never carried beyond itself, it is not love at all. It may be affection, it may be warmth of feeling, but it has not the true nature of love in it. Have I ever been carried away to do something for God not because it was my duty, nor because it was useful, nor because there was anything in it at all beyond the fact that I love Him? Have I ever realized that I can bring to God things which are of value to Him, or am I mooning round the magnitude of His Redemption whilst there are any number of things I might be doing? Not Divine, colossal things which could be recorded as marvellous, but ordinary, simple human things which will give evidence to God that I am abandoned to Him? Have I ever produced in the heart of the Lord Jesus what Mary of Bethany produced? There are times when it seems as if God watches to see if we will give Him the abandoned tokens of how genuinely we do love Him. Abandon to God is of more value than personal holiness. Personal holiness focuses the eyes on our own whiteness; we are greatly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, fearful lest we offend Him. Perfect love casts out all that when once we are abandoned to God. We have to get rid of this notion- "Am I of any use?" and make up our minds that we are not, and we may be near the truth. It is never a question of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. When we are abandoned to God, He works through us all the time. '

C.S. Lewis quote: "Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give it to noone... To love is to be vulnerable."

translation of 1 Cor. 13:4-8 from the Russian to English: "Love is long bearing, enduring, and patient, it is full of mercy and grace. Love does not envy, love does not extol itself, it is not proud, it does not err, it is not self-seeking, it is not irritated or annoyed, it does not think of evil, it does not rejoice in untruths and lies, but rejoices with the truth; it is always shielding, always trusting, believing, and having faith in, always hoping, always enduring, bearing, and standing. Love is never ceasing."

...the Lord is preparing me for great heartache this summer, but it will be the result of a deep love, the overwhelming, incomprehensible love of our God...so rather than putting up walls in protection of my heart, I give it up and pray for rejoicing in the heartbreak, for His work is good!