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THE\u00a0<\/b>“now word” that has been simmering in my heart this past week \u2014 testing, revealing, and purifying \u2014 is a clarion call to the Body of Christ that the hour has come when she must love to perfection.<\/em> What does this mean?\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n LOVING TO PERFECTION<\/p>\n Jesus did not just endure mockery and spittle, exclusion and derision. He did not only accept the scourging and thorns, the beatings and stripping. He did not remain upon the Cross for just a few minutes… but Love “bled out.” Jesus loved us to perfection.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n What does this mean for you and me? It means that we are called to “bleed out” for another, to love beyond our limits, to give until it hurts, and then some. This is what Jesus showed us, this is what He taught us: that love is like a grain of wheat that must fall into the ground each and every<\/em> time we are called to serve, sacrifice, and give. And when we love to perfection, only then… only then… does that grain of wheat bear fruit that lasts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit… fruit that will remain… (John 12:24, 15:16)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The difference between grudgingly, half-heartedly giving ourselves is the difference between our love being human or divine. It is the difference between mediocrity and holiness. It is the difference between a reflection of the Sun or the Sun itself. It is the difference between passing through the moment or transforming\u00a0<\/em>the moment. The only kind of love that can transform the world around us is divine love \u2014\u00a0<\/em>a love that is borne upon the wings of the Holy Spirit and capable of piercing even the hardest heart. And this is not the domain for a select few, for just those “untouchable” Saints we read about. Rather, it is possible each and every moment in the most mundane and familiar of things.<\/p>\n For my yoke is easy, and my burden light. (Matthew 11:30)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Yes, the yoke of the Divine Will is to abandon ourselves completely in the littlest things, which is why the yoke is easy and the burden light. God does not ask 99.9% of us to a martyrdom like we see in the Middle East; rather, it is a martyrdom in the middle of our familie<\/em>s. But we make it hard by our obstinance, laziness or selfishness \u2014 not because making the bed is difficult!\u00a0<\/p>\n Loving to perfection<\/em>. It is not only doing the dishes and sweeping the floor, but picking up even that last crumb when you are too tired to bend. It is changing a diaper for the fifth time in a row. It is not only bearing with your family members or social media “friends” when they are unbearable, but listening without cutting them off \u2014 and even then, responding peaceably and with gentleness. These are the things that made them Saints \u2014 not ecstasies and levitation \u2014 and these little ways are not beyond our reach then, either. They are happening every minute of the day \u2014 we just to fail to recognize them for what they are. Or our vanity gets in the way, and we see these acts as lacking in glamor, that don’t bring us attention, that don’t earn us praise. Instead, they will bleed us out, which often feels like nails and thorns, not praises and applause.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n LOOK TO JESUS<\/p>\n Look to the Cross. See how Love bled out. See how Jesus \u2014 once followed by thousands \u2014 loved to perfection when the crowds were smallest, when the Hosannas were silent, when those He loved had all but abandoned Him. Loving to perfection hurts. <\/em>It’s lonely. It tests. It purifies. It leaves us feeling at times like crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”[1]<\/sup><\/a>Mark 15:34<\/span><\/span>\n
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