Love people.

Loving people is probably one of the easiest and hardest things to do on the planet. Yesterday morning I was reading Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller and I was on Chapter 8: Lifeboat Theory. I dove into the chapter reading away, not realizing at that time that God had given me an extra 30 minutes to read that chapter on purpose that morning. I was away for the weekend on a retreat. A retreat with my community of friends (who honestly are family), a retreat in a cabin in the woods, a retreat where we all spent the 24 hours we had hanging out with Jesus and each other. Anyhow, I read. I took time to myself and read words written down by Donald Miller. The Lifeboat Theory is a theory that goes like this - picture a lifeboat full of five people. A male lawyer, a female doctor, a crippled child, a garbageman, and a stay-at-home mom. The lifeboat can't hold all five individuals and someone has to be tossed overboard. Who do you choose? Honestly, I think we'd all pick the male lawyer.. but why? It's a worth thing. We feel the need to label people as having worth. We all do it. We think the Army soldier has more worth than the bum on the street. We think the bubbling bride has more worth than the drunk wedding guest. The list goes on. Do you want the honest truth? We all are worth the very same amount in the only eyes that matter - Christ's eyes. 

Later on that evening at the retreat, we went over 2 Corinthians 5:14-21. You might read through it and not understand what it has to do with worth and loving people. Amplified version states: 

¹⁵And He died for all, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake.

He died for all. Every single person on this Earth, he died for them. Who are we to judge who is better than who? Who are we to pick and choose who gets tossed overboard?

Matthew 7:3-4
  ³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

Loving people is probably one of the easiest and hardest things to do on the planet. We all see the flaws, the wrongs, and the ugly of everyone we come in contact with. We are the quickest people to judge other people. Why? We are all people and we are all God's people. People are beautiful. God crafted us all to be beautiful, weird, quirky, intelligent, ..fit any of the millions of other adjectives in there for me. He made us all beautiful creatures, to the tee. He made us all the way we are for a reason. We are all beautifully crafted people by the one who is crafted PERFECTLY. Now, what does this have to do with 2 Corinthians?

2 Corinthians 5:16:

¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

When we have Christ, we are new. Therefore, we no longer regard anyone from a worldly point of view. That worldly view that makes us choose who is worthy of jumping out of the lifeboat. That worldly view that makes us judge everyone else, but fail to see the plank that's in our very own eye. Yes, it's convicting and it sucks. We are all human, physical beings and we all judge others. But, when you receive Christ and live for Him, we are new. Therefore, we just need to love people. 

Amplified version 2 Corinthians 5:17:

¹⁷Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

My boyfriend, Micah, said something about the previous verse last night that has stuck in my head. The man is just so intelligent, inspiring, deep, and encouraging I don't think he realizes it as often as I wish he did. He pointed out the word ingraft. If you define ingraft it leads to graft which defined can mean - a portion of living tissue surgically transplanted from one part of an individual to another for its adhesion and growth.

Skin grafting. This is a surgery that is used to help burn victims or victims where there is some other form of damage to the skin. It's a process. What Micah was getting at though was this - When someone is ingrafted in Christ he is a new creation. He pointed out the definition of ingraft and starting talking about skin grafting and how that process works. He pointed out that when someone is in Christ, we go through a process. When new skin is added to old or injured skin, in the beginning you may look like a monster created by Victor Frankenstein. There is scarring and ugliness. Which can translate to our own scars, baggage, ugliness, and brokenness. But, once the process begins we heal. We become new. And when we become new, we no longer regard anyone from a worldly point of view.

Becoming a new creation in Christ is a process. But, it's a beautiful process. It's a healing, growing, real process. It's a process that will affect our hearts as humans. It's a process that will cause us to honestly, just love people the way Christ loves us. Patience is needed, as well as courage. But, the treasure at the end of the hunt is phenomenal. 

At the retreat we had interview questions that we had to ask a partner, just a little something to get to know everyone better than we thought we already did. After everyone had answered all of the questions we went around the room and introduced our partner. It was time for a young girl that I had been 'mentoring' for several months to be introduced. Her partner went through the questions just as everyone else had and got to the question, "Other than Jesus or a family member who do you admire and why?" The girl had answered with my name. I was who she admired. Why? She said because I was always willing to help her out and I just cared for people. Me. Talk about a humbling experience. It brought tears to my eyes and later in the night I announced how proud I was of her, which made me cry again. It's a feeling you can't describe or compare anything to. Basically being told that, I love someone as Jesus loves us which in turn helped me help someone, is a feeling that doesn't compare to anything. All I had ever done to her was hangout, be myself and real with her, and love her. And man, have I seen her grow. If a little love is all that takes, then give me one good reason why we shouldn't all want to be going through the 'skin grafting' process and heal, and love, and be friends with Jesus and each other. 

Love Jesus. Love each other. Love yourself. I'm pretty sure there is not anything in the Bible that is talked about more than love. God is a romantic. Feeling convicted about all of this is a good thing. God works in funny ways. Feeling convicted just means that God is pointing something out in your life that you need to change. It's good. It means that we can now go through the process of dropping the plank out of our own eye before judging the speck in someone else's, the process of ingrafting and becoming new in Christ, and the process of loving all and not regarding people from a worldly view, but from God's view. It's a process that takes time, but time heals. Christ heals. 

No matter how much we may dislike a lawyer over a crippled child, we must all stay in the lifeboat. We are all worthy and we are all beautiful. God included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own (2 Corinthians 5:15).