Never have I understood the word hero until recently. Superman Spider man even the hulk can be everyone's dream to aspire to but I think a hero is one that goes the extra mile for others. To me that's Jesus! He forgave the worst sinners at no cost to himself. He willingly and obediently took the death on a cross to bring us home. Look around our world today who would do that for us now? Whose your hero?
Last weekend we drove to Wisconsin to hopefully become someone's hero. Whether they'd consider us this or not is not what I'm after it's the fact that we practiced Jesus self-sacrificial love that matters. But let me back up a little bit to Thursday. We met my dad for lunch for the first time in three years.
From previous posts you know that we have had a very difficult relationship. After an almost three year drought of communication God prompted me to reach out in love. This was not an easy thing to do but I learned the meaning of 1 Corinthians 13 through this process. Love keeps no records of wrongs. So as I was getting ready to me meet my dad God relayed this message through a hero of mine! A fellow youth leader and I were talking about this during our retreat and I'm so glad we did because it put me back on track. I was able to focus again on showing love. but what is love?
No hallmark explanation here, to me it's going the extra mile or as we like to say in our home "going first" The lunch with my dad was as example of this. As I reached out my hands to my dad I raised my hands to Heaven and they came back to me in surrender. God had planned this all along. But because I went first I'm able to receive his blessing even if it looks scary or anything but at the time. The blessing is in the surrender! The real gift is the submission to God's will for your life! That's the only time in your life that you will ever feel you are doing the right thing. I know, I just experienced this! Only when we submit to God's will do we ever feel truly confident we are where we're supposed to be. But it's not easy and God never said it would be! It wasn't easy for Jesus either! But instead of keeping records of wrongs he extended his hands to his enemies raised his hands to Heaven and the answer was complete surrender. Because I was able to practice God's self-sacrificial love to my dad I was also able to show it to a dear friend.
My friend lives far from us but we drove to and from lifest all weekend! It was a great lineup especially Saturday night! From Matt Maher all the way to Skillet we were bound to have a great time!! As Zechariah was working stage crew he text me asking if there was anyone our friend would want to bring and immediately I thought of someone. So Zechariah and Nathan went for a drive and picked up this friend. Why did they do it? We were practicing Jesus self-sacrificial love! Luckily our car was a rental so all the driving ended up being fine but honestly that's not what we were thinking about. We were thinking about the memories being made! Instead of our friend going home the next day and just trying to explain her excitement over seeing Skillet live for the first time we wanted her to share that experience with someone special!! Hopefully what we communicated to her last weekend was there is nothing we wouldn't do to show you we love you!
Gas and food is not cheap but sometimes God hands you his will on a silver platter and it's up to you to accept it or reject it. To accept it would mean possible hardship on you (more like guaranteed) but the greater reward is the people he wants to reach through your obedience. To reject it means you're choosing to focus on yourself and take the easy way out (which is Satan's choice). I hope that in my life there's several examples I can point to that shows the first response. I know you'll catch the negative reactions and responses but in the end of my life I want to be someone's hero who pointed them to the true hero Jesus Christ!
Whose your hero? Are you somebody's hero? I'm sure it's hard to see by the depiction of heros in our culture but I'd say if you're in the trenches for anyone and for God you ARE A HERO!
I love you with all my heart
Tina Martina Putney
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