Can we talk about this?

I’m happy to give money. I’ll serve on that mission trip. Sure, I’ll go and speak, and yes, I’ll write these posts.

Because I love Jesus, I want to follow Him and I want others to follow Him too. But, just between us, I’d really like to only sign up for those things with the “no heartache guarantee”.

Actually, I’d like a guarantee that if I sacrificially love others, it will go well for me and for them. I’d like the “happy-ever-after” (this side of eternity) scenarios only please.

Sounds ridiculous, right?

But while we might not actually say we believe this, I wonder if it isn’t often true?

If I’m really honest, after all these years of seeing some really hard things, I think I tend to find myself increasingly tempted to guard my heart and my mind in self-protection more than in Christ Jesus.

What I mean by this is that I notice myself weighing the likelihood of disappointment or heartache in loving and serving others.

I’ve began to notice there really is some suffering in long-suffering.

But I don’t think this is the way of Christ —and if we are guarding our heart and mind in Him, we are to love others even when the odds seemed stacked in the favor of heartache (when we are called to love the foster child with the hard past, the prodigal that has messed up time and time again, the imperfect spouse, the young girl with the unplanned pregnancy, the angry coworker, the addicted relative, the broken,…)(Luke 6:32-36)

Yes—we may become exhausted, hurt, or disappointed, but that never seems to be a factor when Jesus loves others nor when when God commands us to love Him with all our hearts, souls, and minds, and love others as we love ourselves (Matt 22:37-39). God simply commands us to teach others His ways and reminds us He will always be with us (Matt 28:19-20).

In endeavoring to do this, we have to remember there is plenty impossible for us, and for others, but there is nothing impossible when Jesus is involved. (Luke 1:37)

No, we can’t guard our heart and mind in self-protection when it comes to loving others. We are to go and love and do as Jesus did.

Love others.
Speak truth.
Give, expecting nothing in return.
And love even when there are no guarantees.

kimjaggers.com

(PS. I’m not suggesting that one should not have healthy boundaries or even sometimes break fellowship. I am suggesting we resist the temptation to look at the world through a self-protection lens rather than a Great Commission lens).