Red Wednesday's Wisdom - CHG #4, Part Two

Love Myself and Others
How would you describe what took place inside of you this past week as you focused on letting go of the condemning thoughts and memories that you have been holding onto, and then replaced them with the heart message of love that God spoke to you through His Word and Holy Spirit?

“This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.”  This Scripture from John 15:12 kept echoing into my ears all week, especially when I wanted to lash out at the lack of  follow though with a number of service people, or when someone saw their way to be better than my way! It can be very challenging to apply CHG #1, which tells me to slow down.  For me, this often means to slow down enough to still the words that want to come out of my mouth, so that I can move to CHG # 4 and tell myself to love and speak to others the way I appreciate being spoken to, particularly in the heat of the moment.  In other words, love those who irritate you in the same way that you love those who are easy to love, and love them in the same way that God has demonstrated His love for me.

When I asked the Lord for the heart message of love that He wanted me to hear, I heard these simple words, “You are a star of wisdom.”  God was taking the Scripture reference that I shared with you from last week in Daniel 12:3 and he was affirming the kind of star He had created me to be.  Wisdom comes from the Lord, and the only way I can be that star of wisdom is because I seek the Lord’s face.  Upon hearing this message, I was taken back to August 2010 and the memories that were connected to God planting that seed of wisdom that would bear fruit in August 2011 and would become this blog – Red Wednesday’s Wisdom.  I recently got an e-mail response to the blog posting from a friend.  It read, “You are a star.  You turn others to righteousness.”  I was humbled by the love of God and Him using my friend to speak the same heart message that He had given me.  Our God is a God of reinforcement.

Yesterday I was driving down interstate 65 South and listening to the words of a song that I had not heard before.  I was moved by this one refrain, “Father, give me the grace to forgive them.”  At the same time, I looked up towards an over pass.  In the middle of this over pass was a man boldly and proudly waving our American flag from a flag pole.  It was 9/11.  To hear this refrain and then see this visual was such a tribute to what happened 11 years ago on September 11th, and here was the heart message that God wanted reinforced,  Love your neighbor.  Your neighbor is anyone outside of you, including those who attacked the United States.  I lessen the clutter of anger, bitterness, hatred, and revenge when I do not condemn but love.  Oh my, how hard that is.   Forgiveness.  This message of forgiveness is so important, that even as I am typing these words for the blog, the same song I just mentioned above just came on the radio!   I now know that it is called “Losing” by Tenth Avenue North.  I am just in awe of our Lord’s presence in everything.  These lyrics just blow me away as I think about that man on the bridge and it being 9/11 and how God orchestrated all of this for me to share with you, and all of it in relation to loving and yes, even loving when we need to forgive!  I am honored. 

Your SW this week?  Reflect on this song, 9/11, our flag, and the recent loss this week for our country with the death of three Americans and our Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.

Losing - Tenth Avenue North

I can't believe what she said

I can't believe what he did

Oh, don't they know it's wrong
Don't they know it's wrong
Maybe there's something I missed
But how could they treat me like this
It's wearing out my heart
The way they disregard

This is love or this is hate
We all have a choice to make

Oh, Father won't You forgive them
They don't know what they've been doin'
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'

Well it's only the dead that can live
But still I wrestle with this
To lose the pain that's mine
Seventy times seven times
Lord it doesn't feel right
For me to turn a blind eye
Though I guess it's not that much
When I think of what You've done

This is love or this is hate
We gotta choice to make

Oh Father won't You forgive them
They don't know what they've been doin'
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'

Why do we think that hate's gonna change their heart
We're up in arms over wars that don't need to be fought
Pride wont let us lay our weapons on the ground
We build our bridges up but it's just to burn them down
We think pain is own apologies and get them to stop
Well truth be told it doesn't matter if they're sorry or not
Cause freedom comes when we surrender to the sound
Of mercy and Your grace, Father, send Your angels down

Oh Father won't you forgive them
They don't know what they've been doin'
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'
I feel like I've been losing

Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'
I feel like I've been losing

Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'