caitlynevangelista - Have you ever loved someone so much you can hardly breathe?

The title of this blog is from the song "Love the way you lie" by Eminem...yeah, I know that's weird. It is on the radio ALL THE TIME, it's actually pretty annoying and disturbing. I'm not a fan of the whole setting your girlfriend on fire and beating her up part of the song. But when it is playing on 2 stations at the same time I usually settle and listen to it. Whenever I hear him say, "You ever love someone so much you can barely breathe?" it really starts my wheels going about love.

A couple weeks ago I prayed that since I hadn't been able to go on a romantic stroll with Jesus that night that I could see Him in my dreams instead. I did have a dream where I saw Him...but it's not like you would expect. It wasn't like my time in Durban, South Africa when He romanced me on the beach(I wrote about that here). I actually didn't see His face. I saw His love. I had a dream that I got to get together with someone who is very close to my heart, and who doesn't believe in Jesus. In my dream I came to a realization of how important it was for my friend to be in a love relationship with God. Obviously, I know this, but I felt it in a new way. I felt God's love for my friend. I loved him like God loved him, to the highest ability that my human body can. The amount of love I had for him took my breathe away. I was so overcome with compassion and love that I could barely breathe.

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else. 1 Thessalonians 3:12

The Lord isn't done with me yet...as if He would ever be done with me! I am learning about all these different aspects and depths of love that I was never aware of. It is such a simple concept, but it tends to be overlooked because of how simple it is! The Lord is taking me back down this path.

"Love your neighbor as yourself" has been bouncing around in my head the past couple weeks as well. I had always thought I had been following this commandment. I was so wrong! I tried putting into words what I thought I was doing, but it is so embarrassingly wrong that I don't even want to share it! This commandment is splattered all over the Gospels (Matthew 19:19, 22:39, Mark 12:3, Luke 10:27) and is first written in Leviticus 19.

The entire law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself. Galatians 5:14

Obviously this commandment is pretty important. Jesus says it is the 2^nd commandment, and its just like the 1^st one! But the thought that has been going through my mind is "how do I love other people like I love myself?" I have had a lot of time to try to work through this since being home. My sister asks me so often to go to Wawa for her, to leave where I am to bring her food, to bring her to her friend's house, to take 2 hours out of my day to drive her somewhere, and other things. The worldly side of me wants to mark the line between what is too much for someone to ask of me and what is acceptable to do for someone else. But then the Holy Spirit in me speaks much louder and says why mark the line?! If I don't want to stop what I am doing to serve someone, that is loving myself more. That is one of the worst things I can do as a child of God! Luke 6:30 says to "give to everyone who asks." That isn't just talking about tunics...it is talking about ANYTHING, especially things you don't want to give away!

I feel like loving your neighbor as yourself is the hardest commandment because we want to love ourselves so much more. But you can show people Jesus this way!!! If you are doing something that Jesus would do, you are going to shine and they are going to see Him through you! It might sting a little bit, dying to yourself, but it will bring True Life!

P.S. Don't ever eat dinner at the Sigourney's house...they are weird :P