Brokenness and the Reality of Love

Friends, this morning I am hit with the realization that we often don't know people the way that we think we do. I've had several conversations that have reinforced this lately. A few have been one person sharing with me something about someone else that that person, for some reason, has kept hidden from me (not that I need to know everything about everyone I know, but these are pretty big things). One conversation was finding out that I and a friend had mutual acquaintances, and this person's perspective lacked the knowledge of some true character things as well (not things that were mine to share...).

From all of these, I've realized that we cannot be truly loved if we are not really ourselves. I think of those who have shared their deep hurts and sins (don't worry, I'm going to share them) with me, and how much humility, honesty, courage, and vulnerability that takes. I think of the brutal honesty with which some of it was shared, almost in a protective "see here!" sort of way, as if to guard themselves from judgment or the pain of rejection.

I have tried my best to express grace and love and compassion in the midst of that sharing. I want my friends to know that they are loved, even when sometimes that love is in the form of correction and instruction. I am imperfect, and thus I'm sure that not all of my intentions and best efforts at love have been perfectly executed.

But as I was thinking about my own desire to love those who do not share with me the darker side of things for fear of rejection, God stepped in and spoke in my heart that it's the same with Him. He already knows (not through someone else telling Him, but because He is God) our darker sides. He knows our sins, our hurt, and the things we do not want to tell Him. And He loves us so much!!! It's true that He does not want these things to be who we are, but He loves us enough to hold us close to Him and tell us that nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:35-39).

So here's my challenge to you, my friends. Share with God your deepest secrets, pain, and sins. He can take it! He wants you to know that you are loved with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3), and nothing will ever change that. And then take some of those things to the people around you. God has placed us within community to help us. We are to be expressions of His love to those He has placed in our lives, and that means that other believers around us ought to be people we can talk with without fearing rejection.

Only when we know someone knows our brokenness and can we know that their love is real.