Let Love Be Your Highest Goal

Let Love Be Your Highest Goal

I am Alpha, the Arrow of the Heart. The mode of existence for this angel is that of love.

What is love exactly?

As defined by Webster's dictionary, love is intense affection arising out of kinship or personal ties. Wikipedia says "love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection or profound oneness." 1 Corinthians 13 describes love as being patient, kind, slow to anger, and holding no record of wrong doing done against it. "If I gave everything I had to the poor and even sacrificed my body... but I didn't love others, I would be of no value whatsoever," verse three proclaims. Love is undoubtedly one of the most influential and most powerful forces in life, both in history and in our present lives.

There are many types of love. Some types, like familial and platonic love, we have lived with for most of our lives through warm embraces, smiles, and even laughter. Some types we have yet to embark upon, whether that be a personal oneness with God or the strong personal ties we forge with the person we have decided to spend the rest of our lives with. All types are important and all forms of love are from God. However, the love I will be addressing today in my message is that of self-acceptance, of knowing your self-worth.

"The commandments, 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbor as yourself' "(Romans 13:9). But how can a person love another if he does not love himself? Love yourself as God loves you because He values your existence, my existence- our existence.

In growing numbers, there have been many instances of people with eating disorders, the connection between dissatisfaction with body image and eating rising, both in men and women. People are unhealthily obsessing over exercise, surgery- altering the body and the face they were born and blessed with. Where there is discontentment with self, there is always a temporary, quick solution for the moment to fix the supposed problem at hand. But understand, as many changes as one goes through, no matter how physically beautiful a person ends up, it does not change the fact that from the beginning, this person was unhappy with themselves. Make up, surgery, all the squats in the world do not amount to anything when the major change needed is in the heart.

This topic is very close to home for me. I can remember everyday as a result of the way I felt, my attitude reflected how I felt about myself. I did not care about how I dressed or how I looked and avoided a mirror at every possible chance. I hated myself. I hated my life because I felt so ugly, so cursed. I tried dieting, tried starving myself for that perfect self but nothing worked; I felt that I was destined for loneliness. When I was about 16, I went to a church camp for the weekend and ended up speaking to one of the youth counselors after one of the classes. She told me that God is a God capable of anything. He is a God that loved us so much that His only son was sent down to earth to save us. And then she said that I, like everyone around us, was a masterpiece created by the Almighty. To be ashamed of myself and to hate my physical appearance was to doubt in the perfection of God.

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."
- Matthew 10: 29-31

Sometimes, we forget the origins of which we sprang from. When God created us, He did not have tags on people to be 'ugly' or 'pretty' but made us "a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor"(Psalms 8:5). He made us in His likeness, in His image, and made us rulers of all life forms( Genesis 1:26). Sometimes, in order to feel love though, a person has to be shown love first. Father may have not given those stern lectures television dads are always notorious for or is probably better not being in the picture. Mother may be busy at work and too busy to hear out those troubles. God is ALWAYS there. Whether morning, night, stuck in traffic, stuck in school, or in those meticulously drawn out days at work, He's there. It says in Matthew 10 that not one of the sparrows will fall to the ground without Him knowing, that He knows the number of the hairs on your very head. He knows when you are hurting and when you are in pain and is listening. "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me," Jesus says in John 14. God chose to adopt us through Christ, as sons and daughters long before the "foundation of the world"(Ephesians 1:4). He had resolved to be that familial love in our lives that we are missing today. He is the true friend we've been waiting for(John 15:13-15). Nothing can separate us from the true love, the all encompassing power of love God has instilled in us(Romans 8:35).

There is a parable in Matthew 18 that has always been a particular favorite of mine: the story of a man that owns a hundred sheep. A hundred? To me, that number is huge; I couldn't imagine that the shepherd would notice if one wandered away. What if this sheep had been the scrawniest, the most plain, the runt of the group? What if this sheep was the meanest and bit other sheep? What if this sheep had been in the worst condition and had gross sheep hair or a nasty wool coat? None of this matters. He is overjoyed to have found that lost one than those ninety-nine that did not stray. It might seem crazy that the shepherd would venture and possibly risk someone stealing the rest of the herd but one was just as important as ninety-nine. Just as Abraham had questioned the Lord and asked him about the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah, if God had found only a handful of people in hundreds of thousands among the residents there, would He spare the entire place? "For the sake of ten," the Lord had said in Genesis 18:32. "I will not destroy it."

For me, it is amazing how all equal we are as people. Equal is a strange word; we could be all "same and even proportions" of love and grace but even had saying that, the one sheep is more important than the crowd. The Father is elated because the one that was lost and alone is now comforted. The one that was lost and alone was just as important as the group who stayed with Him though He is happy because now that ONE is not alone anymore. The thought that even if one of us were to disappear from sight and from society, who will notice? God will. That if my heart were to the brim and I was in danger, who will keep me safe? God will. It is almost impossible to even began to imagine how much love God has for all of us. And that even though one person's problem may be different and may feel not as important or as profound as others, it pains that ONE. He is there to take care of each and every person that will let Him in his or her heart.

I had found my spiritual father long before I mended my relationship with my earthly father. I had found a friend in Jesus long before I became a friend of anyone else. I can look in the mirror and appreciate what God has created, what face God has given me, what personality quirks and character traits God has blessed me with, and appreciate those attributes that others have but I do not. I can share these simple tokens of affection, those warm embraces, funny faces, and smiles. I can laugh at myself without being ashamed or hurt. I can forgive myself when I make mistakes and try to move on. I can pray when I am in need or when another needs help. I can love myself today because the Lord God first loved me.