All You Need is Love

My life, primarily in my brain, goes through this cycle. Simplicity, a little less simple, complicated, frustrating, back to simplicity. I have come to realize that one of my core convictions is simplicity. I believe that life with God is simple. I also believe that God is far beyond what my brain can comprehend, his power is greater than anything I can fathom, his knowledge is far beyond anything my human brain could ever withstand, and life with Him is often beyond words. I do not believe life with God is easy, but I do believe it is simple.

God made my brain. He made me human. He made following Him something that would work with all those considerations. I like to overestimate my ability to comprehend with my human brain and then I end up in a whirlwind of assumption and question, but really God made things quite simple.

All you need is love. God is love. I need God. God loves me. I am saved. God loves others, when I love others I'm loving God. So simple it makes my head spin.

This morning I was reading in Hebrews 6 and I got stuck in two verses where I just couldn't get over the simplicity. Follow my train of thought for a minute. "Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith and endurance."

Love is the end-all. It all started with God's love for me. That's why Jesus came. Now God says we are to love Him and love others and if we do that we will fulfill the law, or basically, we will live the life God desires for us. So these verses...

How do I know that my hope is not in vain? "Keep on loving others...in order to make certin that what you hope for will come true."
I fear becoming spiritually dull or living a mediocre life. "Keep on loving others...Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent."
I want to imitate those who have faith and patience and inherit God's promises, but how do I get from here to there? "Keep on loving others...you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith and endurance."

So let's review. Loving others => hope fulfilled, being spiritually alive, living with faith and endurance, seeing God's promises fulfilled.

It's so simple! Love people. You want to follow God, you want to live the life He has for you which by the way is filled with hope and is for your good (Jer 29:11), then LOVE PEOPLE. That's it. Love God and love people. Simple, so so simple.

And one last note. There is the danger of complicating love. What is love really? How do we really love people? What does it really look like? etc. etc. etc. But I would bet that loving is far more simple than we'd like to believe. Let's try not to over complicate it.

Titles

Just a quick note on the name change. For years now my blog has been titled "The Illiterate Scholar." I started the blog right before I moved to Japan. Having just finished college and headed to a place where I would essentially be illiterate was why that name came to be. I've been back for some time now and the name seemed a bit odd to me at this point so I decided to change it.

"Expecting the Impossible." I've always loved the verse in Ephesians 3:19 that says that God is able to do far more abundantly that we can even imagine. In my life I watched that be true over and over. At this point of the journey there is no turning back, each day lived would be an utter failure if it weren't for God's power and ability to sustain and care for me. I took on a foster son who I've now adopted with an expectation that God would have to do the impossible to make it all work.

I am expecting the impossible because God is able, God is love, and in this life and world the impossible is necessary, it's where there is hope.

quick update

I came here to write about a little epiphany I had. I looked at the blog and realized I haven't written in over a year! To me that's a clear picture of how quickly time passes, and reminds me of how very much had happened in the last year. I won't go back to fill in all the details or share all the lessons learned, there is simply far too much. Not to mention, some of the reasons why I didn't write before are the same as why I won't now, too much, too complicated, too difficult, still processing and unable to articulate... Maybe some day I will be able to share all the lessons learned in the last year but right I will give you a wee little nutshell of what's gone on.

First and most importantly, I am finishing the adoptions process for Micah. As of June 23rd I will officially be his mom for forever! I am very excited about this. It has been a journey like no other and this is not the end of it :) That is both an exciting fact and a bit daunting, but I'll focus on the exciting part and trust that God will continue to take care of us just as He has been doing. Hmm, I will leave it at that. There is so much more to this part of my life, and such much more to this journey, but for now I will leave it unsaid.

Also, in the last year my friends and I started a Bible Study/Church plant. We have seen God do amazing things and it has also been extremely challenging. That seems to be how life goes.

God has been teaching me about being real with Him, about trust, about desire and trusting Him with it, about rest, about family, about seeking to please Him and releasing trying to please others...the list goes on and on and on.

Now that you have a little update on my life, I will continue on with why I came here in the first place and share about some immediate things God has been showing me.