"Maturity starts with the willingness to give oneself...It is only the emotionally and spiritually mature who are able to lay down their lives for others, those who are 'masters of themselves that they might be the servants of others'"
"Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen...In the intimacy of marriage you offer yourself, continually and gladly. When you give yourself to your husband you are actually giving him life. You are putting meaning into his life which was not there before and willy-nilly...you find meaning in your own life because of this sacrifice. Your husband, loving you as Christ loved the Church, that is, laying down his life for you, gives you life and puts meaning into his own. An inexorable spiritual principle is set into motion. It is not the laying down that occupies your thoughts, it is the joy. Christ, when He endured the Cross, knew the joy that set before Him"
(Emphasis by me)
- from "Let me be a woman"
I have much to learn about love...not just love in the context of marriage but love in general...out of context and in context. Elizabeth Elliot basically re-worded that passage in I Cor 13 and it has hit me even harder...It just blows me away and I am left in a jumble of emotions that I can't find the words to express. But after reading that chapter, my greatest desire is this: I want to be able to love like that. To love God and to love people like that. I want that inexorable spiritual principle to be seen in my life...
Jess,
ReplyDeleteI think you do show this aspect of sacrificial love in a lot of ways. Of course there is always room for improvement - we all fail to love in this way often.
But you DO sacrifice for your friends and loved ones. I called you to use your car for my job orientation because I knew you delight to sacrifice for your friends. Things like pulling all nighters to make senior gifts also comes to mind. Those things don't ever feel good... but it is the joy of the gift you are giving to others that, say, keeps you up all night making collages (haha).
I'm not trying to take away from any ways the Lord might have talked to you. But I wanted to tell you that I have experienced this sacrificial love from you in my life.
Mike