Thoughts on Loving in Spirit

To love someone in spirit IS to love them despite what they do.  It sees THROUGH what they do and makes no conditions based on what they do.  Basically to love someone in spirit means that we see them as a child of God, blameless before God because of his Grace.

Imagine if I was blameless, never did things wrong and was thus worthy of great friendship from everyone.  It would be very easy for you to love me.  But that is because I would not have horrible things in your way.  I wouldn't have the habits you hate, the struggles you strike out against.  I wouldn't do things you hated.  Now if you see my habits, my struggles my flawed HUMANITY, it is harder to love me, but you're looking at the wrong thing.

The only reason God loves us unconditionally is because he doesn't even see the things WE base our conditions on.  God does not see my habits, struggles and flawed humanity.  He sees, "a little child who hasn't been loved enough and who has ceased growing because someone has ceased believing in me."  Now if I could love others that way, I love them in spirit because their flesh makes no difference to me.  I could care less about their flesh, their struggles, their habits, their hangups and flawed humanity. I love the child who needs someone to believe in him, the spirit who truly is blameless and incased in a flawed human flesh.

When I used to go Perkins in college (Oh how I miss Perkins), I purposefully never saw a waitress as a waitress.  I saw her as a person like me, not a person there to take my order, bring my food, end of transaction.  She was a person, a child like me who needed someone to believe in her and treat her that way.  I loved the Perkins waitress in spirit not flesh, because I did not care that one of them had been divorced 4 times, cussed like a sailor, and had three kids from different men.  But I do know that she wept in my arms one night when she was terrified and broken.  I loved a waitress in spirit instead of her flesh.

Natural can't be wrong?

"For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." -Galatians 5:17

There is a common reflection and understanding in our culture that if something feels or seems natural, it must be right.

A few problems arise here. First, some things only feel natural when they are not, in fact, natural. Some of these things might be unnatural and we want to believe they are. So we disregard what really might be true. Other things we have to realize disorders for what they really are. Our brains and hearts can be very deceptive.

On another hand, just because something may be natural does not make it okay or even best for us. I crave a lot of things that are not good for me, but my cravings are natural reactions in me for pleasurable things.

But finally, there is the understanding that our flesh, which is our natural state, is at war within us against the Spirit. Living my life lead by the Spirit is going to oppose all the natural cravings within me. When compared to the pursuit of the Holy Spirit life, we come realize why and how everything else is so much LESSER.

Those natural things inside us oppose the Spirit within us, and moment by moment we choose which to do. Those cravings are more powerful than we give credit. When we disregard how powerful those cravings are, we will likely begin following them naturally, and in so doing, have already begun opposing the Spirit within us. Those are the moments we get discouraged and wonder why or how we have come to do things we do not want to do.

Our cravings are strong, and they may even be natural, but they oppose the Spirit in us. We have to want the Spirit more than what feels natural.

* yes that is a donut burger up there