And Before The Coffee Is Fully Brewed...
Anthony and Mary Keith Skinner recently visited the Clark’s.
It was like streams in the desert. I hadn’t realized how lonely I’ve felt for the past several years until I was sitting across the table with a new friend. I have some amazing friends… some of them are in Dallas and Jackson and Seattle… Eye contact and shared coffee
Do you know what was really refreshing about the Skinners visit? They didn’t visit us for them. That’s not to say we weren’t good company, or that we didn’t bless the Skinners, I mean, we are pretty amazing. But my point is, they didn’t come for them; they came for us. They walked through the door and started loving us before the coffee was fully brewed. People who have lived immersed in the Fathers love, well, they love. They can’t help it. You see; they’ve become love.
Karen and I have begun to live this way as well. We are daily becoming convinced in our Fathers always-good love. And so, we too are becoming love.
Jesus was love. It wasn’t hard for Him either. He didn’t have to try. All He had to do was keep His eyes on His Dad. His Dad was Love too.
We went to hear the Skinners sing at The Queen City Church the Sunday night before they headed home. It was beautiful, sweet, and powerful. It was all those things for several reasons. First, as my friend Andy Squyres says, Anthony’s voice is a million bucks. So there was that. But it was also beautiful, sweet, and powerful for a profoundly simpler reason; the Skinners weren’t there for themselves, they were there for all of us.
Mid-strum, Anthony muted his strings and paused for a moment, “I used to try and love God…” my new friend said from the stage. He was sitting on a stool, Mary Keith next to him. “…but now I just let Him love me.”
And before the coffee was fully brewed…
You want to know how a person becomes love; you want to know how a person can live for another? It has nothing to do with trying…
Jason Clark is a writer, speaker and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children.
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Wow! And yet another confirmation! Part of the reason it felt like the fan was oscillating away from me in the past few difficult days was the well-meaning advice from religious Christian friends (LOVE them to pieces but this type of false doctrine is why I stopped going to mainstream evangelical church…you know, you're a "good" Christian if you go on Sunday/Wednesday, are "involved in ministry," go to small group on Thursday, etc., you are in with God…)…anyways, I've been exhausted with the "comfort" I've received by well-meaning Christians…and never felt less loved…This post was water to my soul. I'd been fretting over all the stuff I'm "not doing" & the only thing I really need to be "doing" right now is letting Abba love me!What GOOD NEWS!Whatever else was being "preached" to me right now was certainly NOT the true Gospel, the GOOD news!Phew! 🙂
It's the good news! My one true ambition in life is to believe He loves me. I'm convinced that's what Jesus did – He believed His Dad loved Him and it was what set Him free to become Love.Pretty cool!
I just reread this post…I needed to. Brought tears. Had been praying recently for an opportunity to share Abba’s love with a precious, wounded coworker & ended up feeling a bit like George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life” when he prays for help & gets punched in the nose at a bar…lol, he didn’t see the whole story at that point. Here I’d prayed to share w/this coworker & ended up causing hurt instead (so silly…had heard through office grapevine this guy was a “ladies man” which was absurd…that’s why it’s so funny…but when he heard that was his rep (only a few silly women had repeated that to me…& I set them straight from the beginning), he was crushed.) So much for my prayer to share Jesus’ love w/him, I thought…I went home so bummed…under total condemnation from the enmy & then, as I was praying, I heard Abba say, “I love it when you make me waffles!” I was like WHAT?!?! And He clarified w/a visual…when a kid makes their dad breakfast…I mean syrup might be all over the kitchen & the waffles aren’t the tastiest & the kitchen is a disaster…does Daddy see any of that? No! He just sees that his little girl wanted to do something for him & his heart bursts with pride & joy! I needed the reminder abt the Skinners of just becoming love by being loved by Daddy! (p.s. prayer for wisdom wouldn’t hurt, though, LOL! I haven’t seen/spoken to the coworker since this happened on Wednesday…not sure what to do)