See it First

I have always been a visual learner. You can talk to me about something, but until I see it, I have a hard time grasping it. This became apparent to me when I was first trying to learn the olympic lifts. I read all the articles on "how to snatch and clean" but it just made no sense to me. Then, I got on youtube and my world was changed.

It wasn't until I started watching other people lift, people who were better than me, that I understood the speed, precision, strength, and passion necessary to become a weightlifter. Sometimes it takes seeing somebody else do something before we can really understand it. Donald Miller speaks of this phenomenon:

"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes.

After that, I liked jazz music.

Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way."

If we're honest, the love of God is a hard thing to grasp. We hear it preached from the pulpit every Sunday morning, and we are engrained with phrases such as "God is love". That's great and all, but for those of us who are visual learners, it sometimes takes something more physical and tangible for us to truly begin to understand the depth of His unconditional, unfailing love. For me, one such moment happened the other night as I unfolded the story of my life to my best friend. All my shortcomings, all my failures, all my trials and mistakes were laid on the table. It was a vulnerable place, one- if I'm honest- I was not to thrilled to be in. She could have walked out, and she could have told me what a screw-up and failure I was, but instead she offered grace, love, support, and forgiveness to me. It was humbling to think how undeserving I was of that kind of love- a love that is not based on condition or merit, but a love that stands by you even when you are at your worst. In her love for me, I was given the clearest of pictures of the Lord's unending, unfailing, unquenchable love for his people. It is a love that is redemptive. It is a love that brings freedom and joy. It is a love that you can be thankful for on the good days, and a love you can cling to when your life seems to be falling a part. It's a love that I had heard about plenty of times, but until I experienced it firsthand, I couldn't get my mind around it.

Sometimes we have to see it first before we can grasp it. Maybe you will be the one to show someone else. In either case, it brings me joy knowing that the Lord's love is real, steadfast, and pure.

"This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us... And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us." -1 John 4:9-12, 16-19

Blessings.