Love Is a Sweet Sweet Thing...

Well, I have done a lot of thinking and “soul searching”, as some would say, during the time from the last installment of my writings (hah). I’m finding everyday that God is opening my eyes to so many things I didn’t know I wasn’t even seeing…following me? I wish I could say these new revelations have made me happier, or smiley, or something like that but I’m afraid I’ve developed a bit of a bitter and almost recluse attitude towards my daily duties such as work and well, mostly work. I can say these revelations have given me a better understanding of love, mostly God’s love for me, because I certainly don’t understand the love of man. So diving right in…

The “We Need Each Other Tour”… Let me start with the end. The day after the show Scott said something that he meant as a joke in response to the question “What’d you think of Tenth Avenue North?” He, in his Pentecostal high pitched voiced, said “Oh they were a blessing, that’s what us Christian call them, a blessing”. After basically peeing my pants laughing at the entire scene I just pushed the whole thing aside… but it's exactly what it was. Back to the beginning... Well, not the beginning because it’s kinda boring so, really the middle. A band called Vota opened for the whole thing. The guy walks on stage and I thought we had accidentally went to a Ricky Martin concert, SERIOUSLY this guys looked just like him, at least from where we sat. Once that band started it became clear very quickly his looks weren’t going to matter one bit. He had an AMAZING voice. It was flexible like Kevin Max, but absolutely crystal clear. So then… Tenth Avenue North came on. I, of course, was super excited to see them play again. They blew my mind at Soul Fest with both of their performances and I was looking forward to having that happen again. And it did. Mike (lead singer of TAN) was up there talking about something we just started a new Bible study about. Love. I know I know, who doesn’t talk about love? Especially when you have the chance to do so in front of lots of people. I was expecting something along the lines of “Love your God above all and keep Him king of your life”, you know, the typical (but good) message we hear a lot. But his message went more along the lines of “God loves YOU”. I have a terrible memory so I’m going to paraphrase to the best of my ability. “Think of how much we, as the body of Christ here on earth, could do when we all realize WE ARE LOVED”. So I’ve been meditating on this for a week or two now and here’s what I’m thinking… For those of you that have been in love you probably know that feeling of “I can conquer the world” when you realize that your significant other (spouse, fiancé, boyfriend/ girlfriend) actually LOVES YOU. I’m talking real love, not something you think you’ve shared with a bunch of people in the past year. I remember when I told Ryan about my past, my family, my screw-ups. I basically sat down with him one day, early in our courtship, and said “this is me, this is my family whom I love, I can’t come without this past, and I’m not coming without my family” And he said he loved me just the same, maybe even more. He held my hand while I cried these things to him and told me he loved me. I had this feeling, similar to the one I had when Jesus took me in. I felt like nothing could stop me. Here I am, sinful by nature and by choice, as unclean as any one person could be and Jesus took me into His arms and said “I forgive you”. But people, He didn’t stop there, I mean if He did it would be amazing enough but He continued. He said “I forgive you, and… I LOVE YOU. I love you more than anything; I love you more than my own life. I love you more then the angels who sing my praises every moment of every day.” THIS IS AMAZING! Doesn’t it make you want to do back flips or something outrageously wonderful like that? It does me. Can you imagine if the population of Christians in the WORLD took this to heart and felt the absolute power and joy it brings? I think we’d be seeing people literally dancing in the streets. It would be like the colored forest in Ted Dekker’s novel White (which I highly recommend if anyone is looking for a great read). If we realized and took in this Love with the gratefulness it deserves I don’t think any of us would be ashamed to spread it. Who wouldn’t want others to feel this love? This completely life melting, mind blowing and stark raving mad (as Mike put it in his journal) Love.

WOW!

We need Jesus, and He longs for us. It's amazing.

We had a memory verse in Bible study that goes right along with this. “As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will YOUR GOD REJOICE OVER YOU” Isaiah 62:5

I was going to write about other things, but they don’t seem important now.

Blessings,

~Jennanana