Rose Colored Glasses: Only Jesus Saves
Like my false in faith in meritocracy, I used to believe that if I worked hard enough, I could overcome any situation particularly if it involved people that I love. Believing that I alone had the power to change the hearts of others. Blinded by my own heart’s desire with what I wanted, because of my own beliefs and blind spots.
Two great myths of human optimism and hubris opinion that challenge reality while commingling our ego. Understanding later in life that I cannot control or change other people. Learning later in life that I struggle with even controlling or changing my own self. Accepting and appreciative of God’s good and gracious gift of grace.
While I’ve had plenty of easy loving, I’ve only had one true love. Falling head over sneakers. My infatuated heart performing summersaults, tumbles, cartwheels and stunts for only one individual in all my fifty-eight years. This one person being the only human I’ve ever called the love of my life.
Love is a burning thing. Love is a many splendored thing. Love is a beautiful thing. Love is blind.
Like all things in this world, even our deep and devoted love for another person can be corrupted by something other than love. Sometimes it’s our own fears, other times it’s our selfishness and still other times it’s about accepting what we cannot have regardless of how hard we might try and how deeply we might want something to be true.
Genuine love requires autonomy and accountability. Honesty and humility. Characteristics and attributes that describe God. God is love.
If charity starts at home, so does loving who you are; who God uniquely created. A loving Father who only wants good gifts for us. A loving Parent who wants us to use our full potential to honor others AND ourselves. Honor isn’t about haughtiness and love isn’t about losing yourself.
My adult life in rebellion. Resisting, rebuffing, refusing, repudiating and rejecting God’s love, I would misplace myself because I stopped loving who God created; me. A child of God deeply loved, wonderfully made, and invaluable; just like you.
Lost in my infatuation with another person, I would also lose myself. Squandering my own uniqueness and distinctiveness. God given gifts I would relinquish in my Quixotic efforts to capture a heart of another because I wanted it. A quest absent of any nobility because loving another person is never about not loving yourself. God is love.
As my adult years increased and my unhappiness with materialism multiplied. I became trapped in my own darkness, until that joyous winter night when I would embrace the Light of the world while rediscovering my own light. A unique soul created by God and in the image of God. The same God that lives within all our hearts. The same God that created my innermost being; who knit me together; just like you.
No longer living in the deep darkness of my own desirous demise, I ignored the deceptions of this world and the dishonesties of the evil one. My humbled heart opened; love was no longer about co-dependency or a corruption of self-esteem.
Just as Love demands justice, Love requires truth. Truth I was blind too. My rose-colored glasses showed only the beauty while hiding all the truth.
Blinded by beauty and desire, I no longer loved the Truth or myself. My love for another person morphed into emotional blackmail, coercion and manipulation. Snaky lies whispered into my heart that had nothing to do with love and nothing to do with God. God is love.
The Spirit helping me understand my limitations. Knowing that I cannot love others until I began to love myself. Understanding that salvation and redemption of any person, including me, is only possible through God alone. Only Jesus saves. Not me, not you, and certainly not any institution; no matter what it might call itself.
Peace. God loves you.