Love

Frida Kahlo & Hazel Grace


Pain

&

Hurt

Things that we will probably all experience at some point in our lives, maybe some more than others. I know in my last post I talked about being free to love, and how our Father in heaven is more than able to supply our sense of want and love in our lives so we can generously live to love others. What I am trying to say that this is an extension of my last post. Today July the Sixth was Frida Kahlo’s birthday. Frida was planning on studying medicine when a horrible bus crash nearly ended her life. Besides the normal bruising and bashing of an accident, one of the bus poles had impaled her all the way through.

A Life marked by a thread of pain.

Lots of pain.

Frida & Friend

She was never the same. But this pain propelled her to paint, and she became a world renown Mexican painter who was not afraid to speak her mind. Another result of the accident she had suffered was a miscarriage, and the inability to carry a pregnancy to full term…which lead to a needed abortion. Although many stories would portray her as a tormented soul; I don’t believe she let her pain fully define her life, because of what she said next:

Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing. -Frida Kahlo

I would not be writing this post without her painful accident, and the world would not have known who Frida Kahlo was. In the midst of her pain, she found laughter and life. In my mind Hazel Grace is another character from the movie The Fault In Our Stars who chose to not let pain, and hurt to swallow her life up. Loving someone who possibly might have a terminal illness, as Hazel Grace too suffered from the consequences of cancer.

Hazel Grace knew that loving someone would bring hurt.

Hazel Grace knew that someone loving her would hurt. However, at the end of the movie Hazel Grace said something that stayed with me:

You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world…but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. 

Because I am starting to understand that God the Father is the ultimate giver of love in my life, and he has dispensed it generously to me so that I can give it to others, I know I will encounter hurt…but it’s a choice. However, Love is powerful! Even when I get “hurt” by someone…

Love holds no record of wrong!

Love forgives!

Love has mercy!

When we start letting “life” dictate our path, emotions, and thoughts; it will feel like hell. Thank you Jesus that in the midst of pain, he has anointed us with an oil of gladness, and a garment of praise instead of a faint spirit to rise above and keep walking. I want to choose that instead of letting life eat my lunch…

so I will choose.

I will leave a C.S. Lewis quote now, because he is awesome:

To love at all is to be vulnerable. 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 no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable. –The Four Loves

*I so love Frida Kahlo and her unibrow portraits haha I had a chance to see her house in Mexico City, which was awesome! (even though I got in trouble for wearing a hat inside her house lol).*

**I usually shy away from sad movies, but I totally recommend The Fault In Our Stars, and instead of using humor to deflect the sadness I was feeling during the movie, I decided to let the pain sit in my chest, which made me feel alive…and even more alive after I was done crying (yikes haha). But seriously…go see it.**

***I was a bit quote happy in this post, sorry! Here is one more quote for the road. Love me! 🙂 “If you stand, worship, and love God in the midst of lack and difficulty, you will never lose. Jesus always win. Even when we die for Him, He wins. And in that, we win too.” -Heidi Baker ***

 

Free To Love

She doesn’t deserve it.

He doesn’t deserve it.

It’s not like he is going to return the favor.

I was always careful of who I extended love to for the fear of getting hurt. Hurt in maybe not receiving it back. Hurt in maybe a betrayal. I was so focused on what I can get out of these relationships, and when things didn’t go my way I would feel down. I would even measure churches that way with phrases like,

I just didn’t feel loved there.

Or

I didn’t get much out of the service.

My consumerism mentality was always in full swing at churches, and I still felt emptyish. My feelings would always be dictated by the words and actions of other people. Talk about being an emotional rollercoaster! Then one day truth came in love and corrected my ailing heart. Jesus enlarged my heart so that I could be filled with His love. It was His love that began to soften this brittle heart of mine. His love that strengthened it. And His love that flows through me. God the Father is the ultimate giver, and my dependence of love was redirected to Him. The living water that I was craving began to satisfy my soul.

 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  Eph. 3:14-19

This breath of fresh air was so exciting. I am free to love! Wow! Why would I ever let the actions of other people dictate how I feel or what I do. They are not lord of my life. Jesus is! Now I can love like Jesus. Freely. Unconditionally. With no strings attached. Instead of going to church to always get something out, now I can be:

That vessel of mercy.

That vessel of love.

That vessel of forgiveness.

I can be like the one who lives in me empowered by His Spirit! So now when people love me back…that is great! And when they don’t…it’s not the end of the world, because I am  grounded and rooted in the Father’s love. Lets let truth invade our soul, and let God fill us in faith.

You are Free to Love

 

*I believe that in order to freely love, you have to believe that you are truly loved and known by God. He knows you. He knows your name. This can be a battle of the mind, but take it by faith, since we are people who live through faith by grace. Read the letter of Ephesians, and make it personal.*

**One day I woke up and decided to say out loud “wow…I can’t believe Jesus really loves me! I am a child of God.” It totally set the tone for my day, and I felt joy! (which can be rare for me). I’m not saying I am perfect, because there are still days where I wake up feeling like crap haha But I think that is part of the battle, to really see ourselves in light of what God thinks of us, and to take it by faith…even when the feelings may not follow.**

***By the way, I am a night owl, and a part of me dies every time I have to wake up early 😉 ***