Love Stinks

It takes courage to love – because love stinks.

Okay, so I write Christian mystery-romance-suspense books. I should march through life expounding a giddy procession of clichés about love’s virtues. But honestly – love stinks.

Love stinks because only those we love possess the power to hurt us. We can be callous and indifferent when taunted by enemies, but when someone we love criticizes us, we shatter.

Love stinks because it ends. I met a fellow dog walker today. We fell into each others arms and cried – me because my son had graduated from earth to heaven, she because her loyal doggie companion had done the same. No matter what the object of one’s love, the pain of loss is devastating.

Husband, wife, friend, lover, companion, child, pet, wildlife, flower, tree – every object that we find the courage to love will be lost to us someday. I can write romance novels. I can write happy endings. But I can’t take the hurt out of love. I can’t make it smell good.

Yet, without love, life would be a desert wasteland. Love splashes life and color into every drab corner of human existence. Love fires the souls of writers, poets, dreamers, achievers. Love is the only heart condition that makes living worth the pain and effort. The Bible promises that love never fails.

Love stunk for Jesus, too. Because He loved us, Jesus allowed Himself to be mocked, whipped, have His beard plucked out and thorns pounded into His head. Love nailed Jesus to the cross. Love kept Him there. He could have called angels to rescue Him, but Jesus chose to stay on the cross and die for our sins. Love stinks.

Jesus spent three days in hell – because I’m bad, not because He was bad. Then Jesus snatched the keys of death away from satan, and rose victorious. Jesus broke the power of sin and death and handed us the victory.

Without the stinking love of Jesus, Heaven would be out of reach for us.

Love won’t stink in Heaven. Love will be a fragrant perfume that never dissipates and that lasts for all eternity.

So perhaps love doesn’t stink. Perhaps I can keep writing romance novels, some with happy endings. When sorrow finds a resting place inside my heart, a rose will bloom in its shadow.

http://www.amazon.com/Stephanie-Parker-McKean/e/B00BOX90OO/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Feather in the Wind

The old cliché birds of a feather flock together proves itself daily here in Fortrose, Scotland. Crows congregate in the stand of evergreen trees along Rosemarkie Beach and seagulls monopolize the rock-strewn mouth of the stream that gladdens the glen. Being sociable critters, they do mix and mingle – but at the end of the day – they are totally segregated.

Jesus named God’s greatest commandments as loving Him first, then loving other people as much as we love ourselves. First John explains: “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another…let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and truth…let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God…God is love.”

Jesus’ Holy Spirit draws Christians together. Like birds, we gravitate toward other Christians in joyous fellowship. Unlike birds, however, we should never segregate ourselves from non-Christians. The way we conduct our lives may be the only Bible that some people ever read. We need to be close enough they can see the print!

The famous passage in Ecclesiastes states, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” There is a time and a reason for segregation. It’s called sin. Christians are commanded by the Bible to come away from sin and be separate.

Just as the ground at the cross is level and everyone born into this world has an equal opportunity to reach out to Jesus for salvation and forgiveness, so too are sins level. Viewing actions from our human perspective we condemn murder as the ultimate crime. Yet God hates all sin. The same God who said, “Thou shalt not murder,” also called profanity, gossip, evil speaking, pride, and anger sins and forbid them. Under God’s law, the penalty for sin is death. Any sin. Anger as well as murder.

Thankfully, Jesus died for us so that we can be forgiven and have eternal life. We don’t have to die for our sins. Jesus already did that. Even so, to know something is wrong and do it anyway is rather like nailing Jesus to the cross again. That’s why things like clean conversation and lifestyle, both in my life and in my books, is important to me.

Want to live a victorious life with such deep peace and joy that no circumstance can uproot it? Release sin, cling fast to God. Dare to be a feather in the wind, dependent on God for the journey.

http://www.amazon.com/Stephanie-Parker-McKean/e/B00BOX90OO/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Be Abused

Love shouldn’t hurt. If you’re in a relationship with someone who mentally and/or physically abuses you – get out. You are worth more than that. You are so valuable that Jesus died for you. He doesn’t expect you to suffer hurt and abuse at the hands of someone who has been entrusted with your love. There are shelters and kind people who will help you. If you have children, especially if they are involved in the abuse, get them out immediately. Prisons are overflowing with adults who began life as abused children. The streets are filled with teens who have run away from home to escape abuse. They often wind up as drug addicts prostituting themselves to survive. Then AIDS, then death. Stop it now before it begins. Get your children and get out.

But, if you’re a Christian, allow yourself to be abused for your faith. Non-Christians will often hate, despise and abuse you for your Christian beliefs. Don’t be surprised! Look at what religious leaders did to Jesus: they slapped Him around, spit on Him, mocked Him, hammered a crown of thorns into His head, beat His back until it looked like hamburger meat, then nailed Him to a cross and stuck a sword into His side to make sure He was dead. With the exception of John, Jesus’ disciples all faced horrible, painful deaths because they refused to deny Jesus as LORD, the Son of God. So if you get abused for your faith, take it as a compliment. You’re in good company!

I’ve discovered that sometimes when people mock Christian faith and target a Christian for abuse, they really want to hear more. Remember, if you get abused for your Christian faith, the abuser may be jealous. They may see something in you that they realize is lacking in themselves. They may actually want to hear more, know more. So keep witnessing Jesus to them. It doesn’t always have to be words. Just ask yourself in every situation, “What Would Jesus Do?” and do it. Continue your friendship with that person (if possible) and always remain calm and kind no matter how much abuse they throw at you. It’s impossible for you to suffer more than Jesus, our example, did. And remember, you don’t have to know all the answers. Don’t stop talking about your faith just because they ask you questions you can’t answer. No one can know or answer everything about God. Mysteries belong to Him. Just keep reading your Bible and walking through this life as the only Bible some folks will ever read.

Walk in love, joy, peace, kindness, patience, goodness, gentleness, self-control, faith and truth – the fruit of the Spirit. Take the abuse and share the fruit. It can change the world, one hurting person at a time.