Much & Well // Loving

When I write, I really like for the words to sound pretty, frequenting thesaurus.com and my dad's vocabulary in attempts to fit the perfect variation of a word into a sentence.  Maybe it's an ego thing or maybe I'm just a true word artist or something. All that to say: I'm not sure if rhythmic, syntactical perfection is where this post is headed.  I'll probably just try to write true things and see where it goes from there. Just so you know.

I know I'm so excited about words from Philippians 1:9.  In The Message translation of the Bible, that reads:

"So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well."



I want to hit enter a few too many times to give those words the pedestal they deserve.  Read it again.

"This is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well."

That your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well.

That you will not only love much but well.

Is it sinking in? How simple and complete that prayer is? It has been for me lately, so much.

Since I began caring about God on my own time, I've wrestled hard with and frozen up over that beast of: What does God want me to do? I drank in videos from the Experiencing God Bible study
and scoured the world around me for "signs," whatever those really are.  Before deciding to go
somewhere or do something, you better believe I agonized over whether my presence in the
graduation party, church picnic, or team sport in question was God's will for my life.  Because what if I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and I messed up everything forever? I don't have any stress-induced issues that I know of, but I obviously tried really hard to get some.

According to Paul, doing what God wants doesn't require such intense overthinking.  Our Creator's command, again and again, is to love.  And just that: love.

But the greatest of these is love. // 1 Corinthians 13:13

 So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. // 1 Corinthians 
13:7

Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve
 got! // Deuteronomy 6:5

Love is the rule, not the exception; the place to which God is constantly guiding us.  It's simple, and my frantic brain, weary of constant analysis, rests in Paul's prayer.

"That you not only love much but well." 

As I focus on carrying out that calling, I'm quickly learning that the simplicity of the command does not equal ease in the life it dictates. Loving is hard.  The more I try to pour out, the more often I come to the end of myself.  Relying on God to give me enough to do as He asks. And repeat.

And so in the prayer for abundant, deep love I find peace and an insurmountable challenge.  May I come to a place where I welcome both.