What is one of your greatest desires that if not met leaves you feeling empty, without direction, without purpose, and alone even if people surround you?
What are three words that if you heard them spoken sincerely to you spark a relationship that goes deeper than the surfing with which most people are content?
What connects you to someone that can withstand the waves of life that beat against your heart?
I suspect that many of you may be answering these questions in this fashion: To be loved, “I love you,” and love.
Love, love, love. All you need is love. Love is all you need. This Beatles hit song can spin the hearts of a man and a woman into a whirlwind of emotion. Much too often we find that this love that catches our heart like Cupid’s arrow pierces to the depth of our soul and finds a truer unmet need that if not satisfied will wash away superficial love like a sand castle on the beach.
What am I talking about that would, if you stripped away the “love” in a relationship or the “love” that we are supposed to show others, still leave you empty, without direction or purpose, and alone?
Yes, some of you are already grasping the upper story line, that all we need is God’s love, but that standing alone is not what God wants. If that were true, when God made the first man, Adam, He would have stopped there and said, “I am finished. I have made the man, and his only purpose is to love me.” We should know that is not true. God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”1 God made woman from man and blessed them saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth…”2
Now, before there is any misunderstanding of how I am weaving this thread into its intended message, this is not about marriage, sex, or making babies.
During Jesus’ last supper with His disciples he told them, “My children, I will be with you only a little longer…A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”3
Jesus tells them three times to “love one another”…as I have loved you.
Therein is the message Jesus wants you to receive: “Love as I love.”
Knowing then that I am not talking about the Beatles love song, “All you need is love,” what deeper desire that you need satisfied that Jesus can fulfill in you and wants you to perform with others?
To be understood.
How do you feel, sense, or discern God’s love for you? Does He hug you, wipe away your tears, or hold your hand? Not in the flesh, yet in your spirit you can feel the Spirit of God comfort you, lift you out of your grief, and give you security…because Jesus understands you, your situation, and the future that He destines for you. That is how Jesus loved…with understanding.
And this is how Jesus lived out his love for all of us—
My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,
like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him.
He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all.4
Jesus understands us all. He receives us as we truly are, without our pretenses, our façade, or the face we put on for others to like us. Jesus takes us as the vessels we are, broken and unable to hold water on our own. He understands you and shows His love for you despite your brokenness.
I was inspired to write this meditation after hearing this story about puppies for sale written by Dan Clark5—
A storeowner was tacking a sign above his door that read “Puppies For Sale." Signs like that have a way of attracting small children, and sure enough, a little boy appeared under the storeowner's sign. "How much are you going to sell the puppies for?" he asked. The storeowner replied, "Anywhere from $30 to $50." The little boy reached in his pocket and pulled out some change. "I have $2.37," he said. "Can I please look at them?" The storeowner smiled and whistled and out of the kennel came Lady, who ran down the aisle of his store followed by five teeny, tiny balls of fur. One puppy was lagging considerably behind. Immediately the little boy singled out the lagging, limping puppy and said, "What's wrong with that little dog?" The storeowner explained that the veterinarian had examined the little puppy and had discovered it didn't have a hip socket. It would always limp. It would always be lame. The little boy became excited. "That is the little puppy that I want to buy." The storeowner said, "No, you don't want to buy that little dog. If you really want him, I'll just give him to you." The little boy got quite upset. He looked straight into the store owner's eyes, pointing his finger, and said, "I don't want you to give him to me. That little dog is worth every bit as much as all the other dogs and I'll pay full price. In fact, I'll give you $2.37 now, and 50 cents a month until I have him paid for." The storeowner countered, "You really don't want to buy this little dog. He is never going to be able to run and jump and play with you like the other puppies." To this, the little boy reached down and rolled up his pant leg to reveal a badly twisted, crippled left leg supported by a big metal brace. He looked up at the storeowner and softly replied, "Well, I don't run so well myself, and the little puppy will need someone who understands!"
The little boy understood the puppy with the limp. The next time you think that all you need is love, consider that your need to be understood is what God’s love fulfills. Love one another with God’s love and begin to desire to understand one another…your parents, brother, sister, friend, husband, wife, coworker, the person serving you, the person you are serving, the homeless wandering the streets, the drug addict, the stripper, the alcoholic, the depressed, the anxious, the person afflicted with a disease…
Surely, thousands loved Philip Seymour Hoffman, the famed actor whose life was destroyed by heroin, but was he understood?
To be or not to be…
Surely, <fill in the name> whose life is being destroyed by <fill in the tragedy, trauma or affliction>, but is he or she understood?
To be or not to be…
Reach out today and understand someone…and let him or her know that you do.
To be or not to be understood? That is the question.
Copyright © March 30, 2014 by Jeff Cambridge
References
1. Genesis 2:18 NIV
2. Genesis 1:28 NIV
3. John 13:33-34 NIV
4. Isaiah 53:2-6 NLT
5. From Chicken Soup for the Soul (Volume I): 101 Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit, © 1993 Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, published by Health Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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