How Much He Loves Us

How Much Does God Love us?

No finite picture can even come close to describing to all-consuming love of God. The Bible paints the portrait of a perfect heavenly Father who watches over us and ultimately desires our best. He paradoxically makes Himself glorified and by doing so lifts us up. Maybe most views of the love of God come at the expense of imposing a picture of Santa Claus who sits up in heaven and answers our every beckoning call. Yet other views put him as an unhealthy father or drill sergeant who humans can never please.

This comes out of His work to press and deal with painful issues in my life. This morning I have been working on one of the toughest passages, because of the conviction in my life. While I know God loves me, I have long dealt with wondering about my life adding up while demanding things to change in my life. In this moment, I feel overwhelmed to share how much God loves us:

He loves us enough to withhold good things that we want, because He knows that it is best for us to wait.

He loves us enough to cause pain in discipline for sin so that our lives are not subjected to live under darkness.

He loves us enough to allow suffering, because He knows that our hearts will grow with patience, compassion, and trust for him.

He loves us so much that He makes us see that He is central not our happiness.

All these truths have been repeated in my life. He has big enough shoulders to handle or doubts and disappointments, but more importantly He desires us to know Him in such a rich and deep way. The Savior of the universe calls us to have faith in His death and resurrection, so that we might not just experience it, but live it. Gut wrenching. Troublesome. Encouraging. Hope filling. He is purely motivated and has aligned the planets of our lives for His glory and our good!

Single

Log off every program, before you leave your computer. Any person at that point can make you what they want you to be. People innocently change status updates while you have to explain to the world why your friends think it's funny to post (fill in the blank). This prank has happened to me more times than I would like to admit. Added on top of that my profile name was changed to Peter Fuglert (a bad mailing story) and various other idiosyncrasies.

For my first few years on facebook, I refused to place my relationship status. Not sure if I thought it private or if it could perhaps draw intrigue. Needless to say after one of these so called pranks, one of my friends changed the status for me. For fear of seeing see a news feed with a relationship change, I left the change.

Where does your mind go when you hear the word single? Some would say, the aspect that draws the most importance or focus. Other people might point a quantity less than double, more in the terms of food. I would venture to say most of our minds go to the encompassing status of relationships. Depending on your background certain stigmas coincide with this term. Some would see freedom and endless possibilities, while at times thoughts go to loneliness and seclusion.

This word might be the most intriguing challenge, struggle, and opportunity of my life. People have asked me more questions about this than any other subject. I have probably talked about this a lot also. At times this status serves as the white elephant in the room, but also the common bond of people who hurt.

Why am I writing about this? Quite honestly, this is embarrassing. In some of my deepest goals and expectations, I thought I would be farther along in the process. Either A) I would at least have a candidate to start going into further direction or B) I would be able to say that it really does not matter. Part of the lie of singleness is believing that you are all alone. As many friends that I have that are getting married and moving on in life, I have just as many who still feel the stigma of feeling "single." I don't feel like I have any profound answers, but I think talking about it this issue might bring healing and maybe I'm the one that needs it the most.

Good intentioned people ask about relationships, because they hope some day that a single person can experience a true authentic romance. On the flip side, asking only reinforces the loneliness a person all ready feels. Flattering that people would care so much about your well-being; painful to wonder why this area of life seems the most difficult to resolve. Then there comes the advice like, "it will happen when you're not looking for it" or "there's someone out there for you." Not to mention explanations on why you will not attempt to date someone and the temptation to settle.

This is something I'm dealing with in a variety of ways. Some days, I feel like I am unbelievably content where God has me. Some days, I would rather talk about the economy of Tibet than even hint at the subject. These next couple posts will deal with the lies, expectations, notions, optimism, God's sovereignty, pain, and everything that goes into "single." At this point I hope that people can connect to this whether you are single or you deal with single people. This is a start to clarity in my life and hopefully in the lives of others...