Love Hurts- (but sometimes its a good hurt)

I have been faithfully reading Oswald Chambers My Utmost for His Highest.  Today's entry is about love hurting.  That Jesus hurts.  You can't be adversely affected by Christ without feeling hurt.  I want to expand on it, work it out, journal it, whatever. 

You see, Jesus calls you to change.  To die.  To die to yourself.  And knowing that you need to kill that part of you that you have known for so long hurts.  Jesus is truth, is light.  The part of us that hurts is the evil selfish dark parts that Jesus's truth and light burns away.  The part of us that relies on others to tell us who we are, that has to prove ourself.  Jesus asks one question to prove us.  "Do you love me?"

Don't think this is the easiest question in the world to answer.  Many people say that they love Jesus.  In fact Jesus asks Peter this question 3 times.  Why three?  Because he denies him thrice?  All I know is if you ask me a question like that, I would say yes the first time to make sure I am not hurting your feelings.  Yes the second time to confirm my feelings.  And I would say Yes the third time to make a commitment and to stamp it as truth. 

What does it mean to love Jesus?  I mean to truly love Jesus.

Let's look at die hard sports fans.  I have known them to dress up in uniforms, study the team history, paint their faces or their bodies, even to the point of tattooing themselves.  Get license plate holders, signs, posters, hats and many t-shirts.  They would show up at events, watch them on tv, listen to them on radio.  Everyone would know that they loved that team.  Some might even get in fights over them. 

I fall in the category of one yes when it comes to loving the Cubs.  I own a shirt or two, watch a few games.  But I can't tell you much about the team players or their games. There are people that know everything about everyone on the team, and follow them everywhere.  They buy season tickets.  I would call those people two yes folks.

What would make the third yes?  Stepping out onto the field and playing.  Now I know that is not possible for most people to do that with professional sports teams.  But you see in Jesus's kingdom, its not a team of professionals who go to seminary and get paid by the church.  Infact, Jesus says that the least will be the greatest.  You don't have to be Billy Graham.  You just have to get out there and put yourself out for the team.  What does that mean? 

Even Peter denied Jesus under pressure.  That was before he knew.  Peter believed that Jesus was the son of God.  But he had no idea as to just exactly what that meant until he saw Jesus on the shore making breakfast after he had been crucified... and resurrected.  He did not truly grasp the power behind Christ until that moment.  When he did- Peter jumped off that boat, and swam to shore. 

I often can picture myself doing this.  Approaching Christ to say how sorry I am, that I had to idea.  Christ in all of his magnificence and glory is scary.  Sometimes we step back because we are filled with fear.  But it is out of love that Peter approaches his savior.  It is out of the hurt of denial that he realizes just how very much he loves Jesus.  Love hurts, but sometimes its a good hurt.

Of course Jesus was more than welcoming.  Peter then became the third yes type.  You see, after Jesus had died, he went back to fishing.  Why?  Because it was nice to follow Jesus, but the team lost, and the season was over- or so he had thought.  Peter might have fished again after he met the risen Lord, but I would say it was more out of necessity, or fellowship than because it was what he could fall back on.  Peter became the third yes type when he embraced the power of the risen Lord and went out to preach the gospel. 

Not all of us are called to leave our jobs.  Not all of us are called to travel around the world.  Yet we are all called to follow Him.  To live our lives as a living gospel of the resurrection.  Too many Christians today are only 2 Yes people.  They have all the memorabilia, they go to church, they talk a good talk.  But they have not fully surrendered to what Christ has to offer.  If we truly open ourselves, our hearts all the way to Christ, it is gonna hurt- and it will hurt a lot.  Yet in that hurt, there is healing, deep healing.  There is quenching of thirst and satiation of hunger.  There is the ability to stand in the midst of the storm because you are under the shadow of His mighty wing. 

People should know you are a 3 Yes person by the way you live your life.  Not by your t-shirt collection or a bumper sticker.  Are you in?  Do you play the game?  Do you serve for His glory leaving yourself in the dirt?

Love hurts because it confronts all of our selfish nature.  We want to be selfish and not give ourselves fully to the resurrected Lord.  Yet the hurt can heal when you finally do.  And oh yeah, you have to die daily.  Every single day is a choice.  Every single day you need to chose whom you serve.  Every day you need to choose the life that is truly life.

And I ain't saying I am perfect in this.  I struggle every single day.  Yesterday I screwed up, I was cranky and selfish and my day was a bad day.  Love hurts.  But sometimes its a good hurt because it reminds me that Love overcomes, that Love held Christ to the cross so that I don't have to go there.  Without his love, I won't survive.