love extravagantly

ex·trav·a·gant: exceeding the limits of reason or necessity, lacking in moderation, balance, and restraint, extremely or excessively elaborate, spending much more than necessary; profuse, lavish

the challenge

i love people. i really do. i’m an extrovert by nature and an introvert only when necessary (which usually happens when all my introverted friends are like, GIRL take a break!). so recently i’ve been challenged by 1 Cor. 13:13 –

trust steadily in God
hope unswervingly
love extravagantly

i know i know. it’s the message translation. and all message translation jokes aside, i love this verse.  I was having a rough week last summer and my friend MR introduced it to me as an encouragement. Since then I’ve constantly dwelled on the meaning of the last sentence and guess what. you guys get to read on to see how my carnival brain broke it down 🙂

Looking at the definition of extravagant, to love extravagantly means to go above and beyond what is expected of you, past what you want to do, and deep into the forest of excessive and almost absurd love. Does that sound stupid? I just reread it. I really tried with that forest analogy… anyway, loving extravagantly doesn’t mean to be foolish in loving others. It just means we shouldn’t be limited to the bare minimum. There’s incredible joy in loving others, especially when they love you back. Think about it. What if everyone decided to take that phrase to heart, to love extravagantly? That means when something happens, you desire not only to help with what they need but to see if there’s anything beyond that you can do. it’d be amazing.

this was the conviction. what if there are people i just dont want to love? or what if there are people who i do choose to love but take advantage of that? when it comes down to it, it’s really not an argument is it. we’re called to love and to love others as we would love ourselves. and the extravagant part? well, it’s amazing what a little extravagant love can do.

the truth

when it comes down to it, i know that in my heart i need to love others. had an impromptu mini Summit of the Sexes with SW after our band practice and he really encouraged me to remember that God has forgiven me of so so so SOOOO many things. who am i to hold things against others? not that i do… but often it’s hard to love others when forgiveness needs to happen. and since we’re all human, there’s always opportunities to show grace. on the flip side, like i said before, it’s not wise to just love extravagantly in every single situation. sometimes it’s important to know boundaries and recognize that God isn’t calling us to be doormats all the time. love always requires that balance of grace and truth. because truth without grace becomes self-righteousness. and grace without truth becomes a dilution of what love really needs to be.

grace + truth. i love it. and personally, i think we really experience the Lord’s love through loving others. which is great since we really can’t get a big hug from the Lord. ugh i know i beat this until it’s a dead horse… or whatever that phrase is, but we are relational beings people!!!!! we were CREATED to love and be loved! unfortunately one bite of a fruit and a sneaky serpent got in the way and now we have to learn the hard way on so many levels. but live and learn. and seriously, love. extravagantly.

the usual side note…

update on my life?

1. moved out. moving out is a pain. especially in freaking 100 degree weather!
2. went to california. where my heart is 🙂 and since i’m a little brain dead and want to sleep, instead of writing out a summary of my trip, i’ll just give you a nice slideshow! enjoy…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.