The Time Starts Now

IOW quote for April 17, 2008

To be intimate with others is to reveal our innermost selves to them, including our emotions, thoughts and desires. For such deep sharing of the soul and spirit to occur, people must respect and trust each other. ... In a world controlled by sin, however, to choose to be intimate is to choose to be hurt. Yet Jesus calls us to this kind of intimacy with Him and with one another."~ Kenneth A. Schmidt ~

What a blessing it is to have someone that we can pour out our hearts to and reveal our innermost selves, including our emotions, thoughts, and desires. Someone we trust and respect with the treasures and pain we have stored in us just waiting to be unloaded or shared. Whether it’s a mom, dad, co-worker, employer, spouse, sibling, stranger, or friend, it doesn’t matter. We may find them when we are young, we may run across them when we are old, there is no time frame; there is no specific location.

As Kenneth put it in his quote Jesus calls us to this kind of intimacy. It is a built in need by God himself for us to not only share with each other but with Him as well. A tiny hole in our hearts too precise for a surgeon to detect, to detailed to try and fit anything in it but what belongs which is a close and personal relationship with our Lord and Savior. No matter how hard we try to search for something else to fill that hole in our heart like food, alcohol, sex, gambling, drugs, recreation, or other things it just doesn’t work.

Unfortunately some people would rather have something that doesn’t quite fit than to choose the option of possibly being hurt. They will go out of their way to avoid it while others take it in stride as a part of life. To them it doesn’t make sense to knowingly do something that will hurt you in some way or another. By avoiding the possibility of pain we avoid the blessings that come out of being close to Jesus and others around us.

“Well if they care about me then why do they hurt me,” some people tend to argue. “If Jesus really cares as people say He does why is choosing to be intimate or close to Him also the choice of being hurt?” A lot of times we hurt because we choose to be hurt. Oh dear, I heard a groan from the reading audience!

Think about it. We get hurt when people don’t react as we think they should, we get hurt via our own sin or by the sin of others. We get hurt when we don’t get what we think we should have. We hurt when we open ourselves up emotionally, sharing our innermost self and it’s not received as we think it should have been. Without knowing it we set out conditions that we think should be met and when they aren’t we get wounded.

As Alfred Lord Tennyson said in a poem he wrote in 1850, “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” Being close to the Lord doesn’t guarantee a pain-free, easy life we’d all love to lead. However, if we stick with Jesus we will find that it is better to have loved and occasionally hurt than to never have known His love at all. There’s no doubt about it, the blessings in store for us will outweigh anything we can possibly imagine. Don’t miss the blessings in an attempt to avoid the pain.

CLOSING THOUGHT: Thanks to the use of the Holy Spirit we are given the power to turn loneliness IN God into aloneness WITH Him. Converting the feelings of being unloved, hurt, isolated, not good enough, secluded into something totally opposite as we spend time alone WITH God. Drawing near Him with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:22). Proving true the truth already written in God’s word that if we come near to God He will come near to us (James 4:8).

What’s it going to be? If anyone should be hurt it should be Jesus for doing what He did only for us to turn our backs on Him in our behavior, sins, and lack of obedience. In spite of all we’ve done the invitation is still out, “come near to God and He will come near to you.” Am I wearing out that phrase? I hope not because it’s true. Time alone WITH God starts now. Not on Monday, not on Sunday, not next month or year or when we retire, nor when we die and meet Him face-to-face as it will be too late then, the time starts now.

Our host this week is Bonnie at “Inkit” to Visit Bonnie go on over there and read her take on the quote and join in on the fun of sharing with others