Sigh: Love As it Was Made To Be

Sigh No More

Serve God, love me and mend

This is not the end

Lived unbruised, we are friends

And I'm sorry

I'm sorry

Sigh no more, no more

One foot in sea and one on shore

My heart was never pure

And you know me

You know me

But man is a giddy thing

Oh man is a giddy thing

Oh man is a giddy thing

Oh man is a giddy thing

Love it will not betray you

Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free

Be more like the man you were made to be

There is a design, an alignment, a cry

Of my heart to see,

The beauty of love as it was made to be

- Mumford & Sons

Love as it was made to be...

I haven't posted recently because I feel bombarded by the details of my own life. Yes, therapists feel like that too. So much is going on that it's hard to focus. What do you know about love as it was meant to be? I have been faced with a number of situations lately where I have had to explore that definition. It turns out that what you actually do in a situation where the people you care about act badly is where your love level can be defined. Are you forgiving? Do you hold it against the person because they're awkward or not self-aware? In the last few weeks, I've been both the wrong-doer and the victim of bad behaviour, and it's made me think about grace. 

Merrian-Webster defines grace in the following ways:

a : unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification

b : a virtue coming from God

c : a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace

I think that this is our redemption right here - in grace, we are made sanctified or regenerated. In our relationship with God, this happens on a daily basis. We make a decision to be a certain way, but then the fallen humanness in us causes us to err. God doesn't hold this against us and end the relationship, but He offers His grace to all who would accept it. He is perfect. I think one of the reasons people find this so difficult to accept is that in human relationships, this is hard to do. Most people distrust others to do right by them 100% of the time, and this is because people are incapable of doing right by others all of the time. It is a form of self preservation to be cautious in relationships, to ask "Do I give this person another chance?" but love says that we must. 

We don't even have to talk about the serious offences that people commit against us, we can start with the little annoying habits of the people in our lives - the passive aggression, the silence, the hostility, the anger. I want to tell you that sometimes, you are a perpetrator as am I. Do you offer your people grace? Or, do you become angered by their neuroses? Today's post is about having grace for the people in your life. It's about holding back long enough to see the bigger picture. An annoying behaviour might be a sign of someone else's prison, rather than their malice. Try to see things differently, and give them the same grace that you also need.  

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