What
if the one thing that is keeping us from loving others, is our inability to
love ourselves?
We
can all agree that from the beginning of time, starting with the very first man
and lady (Adam and Eve), there has been a fracture in our human ability
to love; a shortage in how we loves God, a shortage in how we love one
another; and a shortage in how we love ourselves. And in the middle of this
obvious shortage, Jesus sweeps us away with these powerful words that start
first and foremost with loving our God, and then…
Mark 12:31
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Really?
You
want me to love myself?
Yes…
That is the will of God for your life.
We
often look at this verse as a call to love others, and it is. But deep inside
this verse is a call to something even deeper. The more I’ve learned about
myself through the word of God, the more I am completely in awe of how well God
knows me. These five words hold such powerful insight into the human world;
because they are words that speak love into a shortage that God knows exists: A
shortage in loving myself. But what if this shortage, was holding me back
from really, truly, genuinely, fully loving people?
You
cannot fully love others, until you have learned to love yourself, because
our ability to love others is dependent on how we love ourselves.
For
a perfectionist like me, that hits me square in the nose. It turns my stomach,
and makes me come clean with the struggles I have within myself. It opens
my eyes to the places and ways in which I’ve neglected to love myself, or even
worse, to the moments in which I dislike myself.
I
know so many Christians who also struggle deeply with this concept. There are Christians who have never been taught to
love themselves.
Christians
who mistakenly thought they had found some solace in the words of the Bible
that taught them to deny their self, to put others before them, and to consider
themselves as nothing. Masking self-loathing with self-denial.
Confusing humility with a lack of self worth. Considering “putting others
first” as a call to neglect and repress their needs and their health. Mistaking
self-hatred for selflessness.
To be continued...
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