Friends are people you choose to love. Words of wisdom from my five year old. And as far as I'm concerned, its easier to just choose to love everybody. Because love is not about what people can, or have, or will do for you. Love is about what you can do for them. Giving everything you are and everything you have to someone no matter what the result is. Laying your life down for your friends. And I'm telling you, when you start laying your life down for people, you will start making friends. Because its really hard to NOT like someone who is loving you. And because when you are loving someone you begin to see them as God sees them. You begin to see their hearts (what's underneath) instead of just their actions (the surface stuff). And I'm convinced that the only REAL way to line up with people is for me to line up with Jesus--with love--and for you to line up with Jesus--again, love--and then we will automatically line up with each other. That's called relationship. And it is built on the rock solid foundation that is love. I mentioned a few days ago about how we kind of go to extremes with our best friends. Like, we will let them get away with anything. But we will also call them out on their nonsense. Right? Because we love them. And because we love them we will also go to extremes with ourselves. We will drop anything in order to DO anything for them. Because we love them. Now just think about how different the world would be if we treated everybody, if we LOVED everybody, the way we do our best friend. And I get it, that kind of bond is rare. Its precious. Its precious BECAUSE its rare. But that level of maximum effort doesn't have to be rare. That level of maximum effort is what love is. And that's who WE are. Not just what we do, but who we are. Because that's who God is. Not just what God does, but who God IS. Its His nature. And He gave that nature to us when He gave His Son to us. When Jesus gave His life for us, and gave His life to us. So its our nature. Not the selfish beast nature that we had in Adam, before the cross, but the selfless love nature that we have now in Christ. The last few days when I've been working on this Rant series I've had that song that goes, "I am a friend of God... I am a friend of God... I am a friend of God He calls me friend" stuck in my head. (Its probably called Friend of God, but I digress.) My point is: Its important that we know how God sees us. Because that's how we ought to see each other. I pointed out a couple of instances in the Bible where people--Moses, Abraham, etc--are identified as God's friends. But the truth of the matter is, God so loved THE WORLD that He gave His only begotten Son. The truth is we are ALL friends of God. We just don't act like it because we don't know it and believe it. And the best way to know it and believe it is to live it. To treat each other like friends and brothers (and sisters). The best way to experience something is to share it. The best way to feel love is to love someone. The best way to feel forgiven is to forgive someone. The best way to feel friendship--probably the only way--is to be friendly. That's what I endeavor to teach Logan; you have to BE a friend to HAVE a friend. You choose to love people and then you experience love as you give it away. That's what love is for. That's what its all about! Receive it and release it. Have a friend by BEING a friend!

I'm trying to say loving people leads to liking them. That's my point. You don't have to be someone's friend to love them. Because if you love them it might just start a friendship. Because in order to love someone you give them everything you have and everything you are, right? You be nice to them. Kind. Generous. Forgiving. And the natural response to that kind of behavior is to like the person that's being nice to you. (Not all of the time, I grant you, but at least some of the time. Its really hard to hate someone that is always nice to you.) And here's the cool part: Instead of "loving everybody" in a grudging way because that's what "Christians are supposed to do," when you just receive and release the love of God you start to find things in people that make it easy. As I said in an early Rant: Love is not blind. Love sees clearly. And that doesn't mean that love just ignores the "bad" stuff. That's what we think "being blind" is love is all about. In truth, love SEES the surface stuff, but it also sees what's BELOW the surface. It sees someone being destructive, but it also sees the pain behind the destruction. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. Hurting people hurt people. But loved people love people. Love sees the heart. Because, as Noah found, there is grace in God's eyes. We don't ignore the surface, but we don't have to react to it either. Think about your best friend for a second--on the one hand, you would let them get away with stuff that you wouldn't tolerate from anybody else, right? Because you love them. But at the same time you're not afraid to call them out if they're doing wrong, either. Because you love them. I've said many times, if you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything. There are some things in life you absolutely should NOT tolerate. But watch this: "...speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ" (Ephesians 4:15). Now what this ISN'T is the "tough love" that we seem to be so fond of where we are actually being mean to someone. What this IS is, "For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth" (Proverbs 3:12). But notice who is doing the correcting; the Lord. Sometimes its not our place. But sometimes it is. When my son messes up--and believe me I delight in him every single day--I correct him. Because I want to help him learn and grow. I speak the truth in love to him. And watch this: Jesus is the Word of God. He is the Truth. The truth IS love. Speaking the truth in love is speaking LOVE in love! Its being there to help people up, and (instead of judging them) its understanding how they fell down. Because we all fall down. That's how you learn how to walk. But if someone kicks you when you're down, its hard to get back up. When someone I love falls down I don't think less of them. I don't even think at all. I just immediately reach down to help them up. That's what seeing clearly is about. Its about accepting people for who they are, and showing them love. And in so doing, showing them who they REALLY are. Giving them something they thought they didn't have. Showing them a more excellent way. Being friendly, and finding that by choosing to love people we are giving them the greatest gift of all!

The point I was trying to get to yesterday, in my "wander around I hope I found my point somewhere along the way" way, is that I don't think you can love someone without BEING fond of them. Which is not to say you should only love the people you're fond of. Exactly the opposite. The more you love someone the more fond of them you become. Because while its popular to say, "love is blind" (and I really do understand the saying. There's a time and place in a relationship where you don't see the other person's flaws because of how into them you are.) but the truth of the matter is that love--true, agape, God-love--isn't blind. It (HE) sees clearly. Because it (HE) doesn't look at the outside. It (HE) looks at the heart. And not just "the" heart, but HIS heart. God sees what's underneath the surface. What's hidden deep inside. And deep inside we all just want to be loved. That's why, at the most very basic level, we do what we do. We think if we do it it will get us closer to being loved. Unfortunately, that's the trap that religion has set. That's the lie that the serpent hissed into Eve's ear. Because the truth of the matter is, love is not about what we DO. Its about who we ARE. Its about who GOD is. And God IS love. The heavenly Father loves His Son (us, Jesus, God in the flesh, love in a body) because that's His nature. That's not just what God does. That's WHO God IS. And when we know (and believe) that love, that's who WE are. But, again, my point for this Rant series is friendship. Fondness. And I'm convinced that you can't give someone everything you have and everything you are--which is what it means to love them--without also BECOMING fond of them. Romans 5:7-8 says, "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dar to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." In the Message Bible it reads, "We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him." See, Jesus died for us not because of what He could GET, but because of what He had to GIVE. What we needed. Needed, and couldn't earn. No matter how much we tried. No matter how loveable we tried to be. Because its not about that. Love isn't about someone being "worth" dying for because of what they've done. Love is the statement that you ARE worth dying for no matter what. That's the greatest love a man can have; to lay his life down for his friends. That's the biggest gift you can give. I'll say that again for emphasis: That's the biggest GIFT you can give. And gifts are freely given. They are not earned. Deserve's got nothing to do with it. Now watch this: When you give someone a gift, and their face lights up with joy... its hard not to FEEL that joy. Its something that becomes even more real when its shared. When you go through something with someone you form a bond. And when you give someone something that they desperately need (no matter how they respond or react) it, at the very least, plants the seeds of friendship. You can't love without giving, and you can't love without feeling a sense of fondness.

The greatest love a man can have is to lay down his life for his friends. To give everything he has and everything he is, no matter how its received. And, as we kind of saw yesterday, we are all friends. Even if we don't know it yet. This, to me, really goes back to all those Rants and sermons I've done about "loving the unloveable." Because we destroy our enemies by making them our friends, right? We kill 'em with kindness. And I've come to realize that fondness--which is one of the definitions of "friends"--goes hand in hand with love. But NOT the way we generally think of it. NOT in the sense of, "I will love you because I'm fond of you." Jesus had this to say about that kind of attitude, "For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?" (Matthew 5:46). Which, of course, is not to say that you SHOULDN'T love people who love you. Of course you should. And that's easy. That comes natural, even to a natural mindset. "You scratched my back? Sure, I'll scratch yours." But what Jesus was saying, a few verses earlier, is, "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). His point was, love EVERYBODY. If ALL you do is love those that love you then you've neglected those who probably really need it. Because people who are hard to love probably aren't getting it anywhere. So if you refuse them too... well... shrug. Then we get to the end of the chapter and Jesus says, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). Which was NOT Jesus giving us an impossible mission. Jesus was NOT saying, "Be perfect... or else." He had just finished telling us HOW to be perfect. And the way you be perfect, or holy, or whatever you want to call it, is by being friendly. To everybody. Loving those who love you AND those who don't. Love is unconditional. It isn't at all dependent on who the person is or what they've done. Because love isn't about getting. Love IS giving. And when you know and believe that you are loved, that's when you CAN love. That's when you have something to give away. Something that is too good to keep to yourself. Something that is so good that you WANT to give it away. To everybody. Unconditionally. Let me say it like this: You can build walls, or you can build bridges. You can exclude people or you can include people. You can be patient enough to turn the other cheek when someone offends you... and love them anyway... or you can make things worse for everyone involved. I've seen it so many times. When someone does you dirty... and you turn around and love them... its almost like they don't know what to do at that point. And, listen, there ARE people who will take advantage of your love. But so what? Give it all you've got no matter what. And I'm not saying you should continuously let it happen. Do your best and forget the rest. Because if you give it your all it will either be enough, or it won't. And if its not enough, at least you did what YOU could do. At least YOU were a friend. Whether your friendship was received or not. The point is not getting a response. The point is giving what you've got. The point is being a friend no matter what. Loving people no matter what!

This Rant series was Logan's idea. I asked him what I should Rant about and he said, "Don't you always just talk about love?" Um... yes. "Friends are people you choose to love," he pointed out. And he's right. Because according to Jesus, according to John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." You how love by giving everything you have and everything you are to your friends. Now the word, "friends" here is number 5384 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "dear, that is, a friend; actively fond, that is friendly (still as a noun, an associate, neighbor, etc.)." So it means someone you're fond of, but it encompasses your neighbor. And when Jesus was asked--by a lawyer no less--who exactly our neighbors are (Luke 10:29), Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan. Then this happened, "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise" (Luke 10:36-37). And the point that people seem to miss in all of this is that the Samaritan was a Gentile. If the Jewish lawyer was going to consider ANYONE his neighbor, it wasn't going to be the Samaritan. But the lawyer had to admit that compassion wins the day. So when we think about the greatest expression of love that someone can have--laying your life down for your friends--we need to understand first of all that God so loved the WORLD that He gave His only begotten Son. When Jesus was lifted up from the earth on the cross He drew ALL Men unto Himself. In the Bible there are times when God specifically labels people as His friend. Moses, for example, in Exodus 33:11. Or Abraham, in James 2:23. But the point I'm trying to make is that that's how God sees us. In fact, when God looks at us He sees Jesus. And when He looks at Jesus He sees us. Because Jesus is IN us, and because we are IN Jesus. So this idea of laying your life down for your friends... that's exactly what Jesus did on the cross. For all of us. When the Holy Spirit dwelt AMONG us instead of WITHIN us, Jesus considered us friends. He was a friend of sinners. He didn't disqualify anybody (except religious folk, and part of the reason for that was so that the rest of us could be grafted in). He considered us all friends. So this idea of us laying our lives down for our friends, or our neighbors, can really extend all the way to the point where we ought to lay our lives down for anybody we come into contact with! Abraham Lincoln said something along the lines of, "I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends." And that's called killing them with kindness. That's called giving eveything you have and everything you are no matter how its received. No matter if it seems like the more you love the less you are loved. Because people are suspicious of love oftentimes. Because it seems like its too good to be true. But when you start to love people--ALL people, regardless of who they are or what they're doing--you find yourself becoming fond of them. You find those things that might come between you melting under the consuming fire that IS God. The consuming fire that is love. The consuming fire that consumes everything except itself. So that only love remains. So that we begin to see ourselves as God sees us. As brothers and sisters. As... friends.

You can't make anybody do anything. That was one of the first, best, and most important things my pastor ever taught me when I started to get into the ministry. People are going to do what they want to do. That's human nature. And a lot of the time it seems like people are going to do what you DON'T want them to do. Rebel without a cause, right? Make a line and I'll cross it. Make a rule and I'll break it. That's because true, lasting, real change come from the inside out, not the outside in. The BEST we can do is train up a child in the way he should go. The BEST we can do is to stop telling people WHAT to do, and start telling people WHO they are. Because what you do is dictated by who you are. And then we need to have enough patience to let people make mistakes. Because Rome wasn't built in a day. Good things take time. This is a journey. And THIS journey never ends. It STARTS at the end. The destination isn't something to strive for. The ride (FROM the destination TO the destination--FROM glory TO glory--as we fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with and let it come out of us naturally) is the point. And more specificially, ENJOYING the ride is the point. No true father wants his son to suffer. True parents want what's best for their children. They want their kids to succeed, and to have a wonderful life. An everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life. Jesus' life. Which is experienced as HE lives His own life in us, and through us, and as us. And here's the key: Love is what makes an abundant life abundant. Love is what makes life worth living. Love is what makes it possible to truly live. To live is to love and to love is to live. And love is patient. Love doesn't demand its (His) own way. Love lets people be who they are. Even when they don't know who they are. Which is comforting to me, because like I said, you can't make people do anything. You can't make people act a certain way. And, yes, I understand that if you scare someone badly enough they will conform, at least for a while. At least while you're watching. But that's not real. That doesn't last. I said it before--more laws make more lawbreakers. Strict parents make sneaky kids. Instead of trying to crush people under our thumbs we need to show them a more excellent way. Don't make rebellion something cool because you are giving people something horrible to rebel against. I look at "traditional religion" and it seems to me that rebellion, or at the very least running screaming in the opposite direction, makes a lot of sense. Because God doesn't want religion. He wants relationship. Jesus didn't come to establish religion. He came to show us the Father, so that we might know ourselves as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. But if all we care about is making people fit into our religious (cultural) box, then we miss out on the most important part. Which is getting to know people. On a personal level. Connecting with people, and letting people be who they are. Having enough patience to stop giving back what people give us, and instead loving them anyway. Reaching out a helping hand even if it gets slapped away. Turning the other cheek. Giving situations time to develop, and work themselves out. Loving the hell out of people--which takes a LOT of patience--instead of trying to scare the hell out of them. I'm telling you, its a more excellent way!

I have found, through much trial and error, that a lot of the time things work themselves out. A lot of the time, even though I'm trying to help, I end up hurting the situation. Because a lot of the time I'm not patient enough. I try to do things I ought not be doing and it makes situations a lot worse. I get out of my lane, if I can say it that way. I try to be someone I'm not, or do something I can't, in order to MAKE a situation be a certain way. The thing is, love doesn't demand its (HIS) own way. All throughout the Bible God would tell His people what to do only to watch them do the exact opposite thing. And through our human understanding we would write about that bringing God's wrath. But the thing to remember about the Old Testament of the Bible is that at that time, with those people, the understanding is that God was responsible for EVERYTHING. If it rained it wasn't about cold fronts and air pressure and things of that nature. If it rained it was because God had decided to flip the rain switch. And, listen, I'm not saying God ISN'T that way. I'm simply saying that when He created the earth He set laws of nature in motion. And, yes, He would often use those laws as He saw fit. He stopped the sun in the sky one time. And another time in His earthly body, Jesus calmed a storm. He walked on water. My point is, our actions have consequences, and that doesn't mean God is punishing us. If we mess up a situation, we really shouldn't blame God for how it turned out. Proverbs 16:25 says, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." We THINK we're doing something good, but we don't have enough patience to let a story play out. And then we blame everything and everyone under the sun when it DOESN'T turn out the way we think it should. We try so hard to make square pegs fit into round holes sometimes. We even go so far as to try to cut the corners off. Square pegs aren't supposed to fit into round holes. And when you cut corners, or try to take shortcuts, you oftentimes miss out on the journey. I'm telling you, in this never-ending life-long journey that we're on its NOT the destination. Its what we experience on the way. And the BEST way is not the way that seems right unto a man. It's THE Way that IS Jesus Christ. It's THE Way that IS a relationship with our heavenly Father. Because when you know that you are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased... you will stop trying to please Him. You will stop trying to DO in order to BE and you will start doing BECAUSE you be. And that's when you WILL please Him. No father wants to see his son struggle to be someone he's not. I'm most pleased with Logan when he's just being who he is. When what's in his heart is coming out. Naturally. When he loves out of the love he is loved with. And sometimes that takes patience. Because sometimes we forget who we are. See James 1:23-25. We try so hard to make things be a certain way when that's not the way they were ever supposed to be. We try so hard to be someone we're not when we were created to be who we are. I'm telling you: Learning and growing takes patience. But things work themselves out. The end took place 2,000 years ago. The battle was won. The race was run. And now we are equipped and empowered to enjoy the ride!

There's an interesting story in 2 Samuel chapter 16. And its a little bit lengthy, but I think its worth getting into. A man is throwing curses at King David. Then this happens, "Then said Abishai the son of Zeruiah unto the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head. And the king said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? so let him curse, because the LORD hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so? And David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, Behold, my son, which came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life: how much more now may this Benjamite do it? let him alone, and let him curse; for the LORD hath bidden him. It may be that the LORD will look on mine affliction, and that the LORD will requite me good for his cursing this day" (2 Samuel 16:9-12). I think most of us are like Abishai. We are ready to leap into action. Especially when we feel that "righteous anger" start to bubble in us. I mean, defending David--the man after God's own heart. What's could be more honorable than that? But sometimes when we leap into action we are also jumping to conclusions. Sometimes we neglect to take the time to figure out WHY something is happening. We just look at the surface appearance and go from there. David was patient though. He didn't think of himself as more important than the guy who was cursing him. David figured the guy had his reasons. And not only that, he figured maybe God had TOLD the guy to do it. And either way, he didn't feel like it was his place to put a stop to it. Almost like he was saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." He figured it was all a part of God's plan, and God would take care of what needed taking care of. I think that's one of the most important things that patience teaches us; many times things work themselves out. If you give them enough time. Something harmless CAN escalate, if you let it (or help it). But something harmless can also just kind of drift away if you let it. I guess my point is: You don't have to "right every wrong." You really need to be able to pick your battles. You need to be patient with people. And if you don't necessarily know why THEY are doing what they're doing, at least know why YOU'RE doing what you're doing. Make sure the juice is worth the squeeze. Make sure you're taking a stand on something worthwhile. Because there are times and places you SHOULD make a stand. Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything. But sometimes the situation calls for a little LESS action. Sometimes a little bit of patience goes a LONG way. Especially when your goal is to de-escalate the situation. I've said this before and I'll say it again: It's better to have the RIGHT word than the LAST word. (The right word, of course, is THE Word. Love.) Being kind is more important than winning an argument. So let people vent sometimes. Let people say what they're gonna say. Because they will no matter what. Don't get worked up. Let it go. Let love flow. Be kind and patient!

This is where I think I wanted to get to yesterday, and where the idea for this Rant series came from: "But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matthew 5:39). And somehow, it seems like we preach this verse as if this is HOW you resist evil. As if to say, "In order to really stick it to someone... when they slap your face, turn the other cheek! That'll get them!" But I don't think that's what Jesus was saying. I think it was more along the lines of, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God" (Matthew 5:9). I think Jesus was trying to show us a different way. A more excellent way. Because all we seem to want to do in the church world is resist evil. I've never seen a people more ready to fight than church folk. We preach our culture and we resist anything and everything else. That's why when people say I'm out of my mind I usually reply by saying, "No, but I'm clearly out of YOUR mind." And that WILL frustrate people. I think that when people get what they don't expect--even in a positive light--it tends to confuse us. I think love is one of the most misunderstood things in the universe. People are always looking for an ulterior motive. Like... "I just hit you and instead of hitting me back you're hugging me? What's your game!?!" When in truth, love doesn't HAVE a motive. Love IS the motive. And if someone hits you and you don't hit back... if you can have enough patience to understand that people can only give you what they've got--hurting people hurt people--then you can break the cycle. Instead of giving back what they gave to you, what they have, you can give them what YOU have. You can take what they've got without retaliating, and you can show them who God is. By showing them love. I still remember when a kid at my job ran away and I tracked him down to bring him back to class. He rolled his eyes at me and said, "Well... you caught me." And I told him, "I'm not here to catch you. I'm here to keep you safe. I'm here to help you." And he looked at me like I was an alien. Like all his life it had been him vs everyone else and now all of a sudden there was someone on his side. And I'm not saying that from that moment on we were best friends. Because we're not. But from that moment on he looked at me differently. He trusted me a little bit. And then I was in a position to help him even more. And then he trusted me even more. Because most of the time things happen slowly and steadly. Baby steps. But if you've followed my ministry for any amount of time you've probably heard me say that baby steps are perfectly ok. You have to learn to crawl before you can walk. Good things take time. You can't expect the whole shebang right from the jump. You have to have patience. Both with yourself and others. Otherwise a situation like someone smacking you in the face, or smacking your hand away when you're reaching out to help them, could wreck you. You could conceivably get into a situation where you stopped reaching out. Where you hit back when someone hit you. But that's not a peacemaker. That's not helping anybody. That's not going to let you be KNOWN as a Son of God. With patience we possess our souls, right? When we're not flying off the handle, or giving back what someone gave us an eye for an eye, that's when we can be who we really are. Who we really are in Christ. Which is who Christ really is in us!

If there's one thing my job has taught me--and to be sure, it teaches me things every day--it's that a little bit of patience goes a long way. When a situation is starting to get to point of escalation, a calm voice in the midst of the storm can do a lot to get things back to good. And, by the way, according to Luke 21:19, "In patience possess ye your souls." I like it even better in the Amplified Bible, "By your steadfastness and patient endurance you shall win the true life of your souls." I think that's one of the biggest, and most unfortunate, effects of running around like a chicken with your head cut off; of trying (through works and labor) to earn something that can't be earned... You miss out on what you've already got. I think that's what Jesus was talking about when He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber" (John 10:1). He wasn't talking about somebody else robbing me. He was talking about me robbing myself! Because I tried to use a short cut. Because I tried to enter the sheepfold without coming in through the door. Jesus is the door. Our heart is the door. Because the sheepfold is the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of Love. That's why the way to LIFE (not heaven) is narrow. We say, "There's only one way to God" as if there's an elevator that either goes up or down. But Jesus actually said no man comes to the FATHER but by me. He wasn't talking about how to get to heaven. He was bringing heaven to earth. He was talking about how to have a relationship with our heavenly Father. And the only way to do THAT is by identifying ourselves as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. The only way to know God as Father is to know yourself as Son. The only way to enter the sheepfold is through the door. Trying to get in any other way is you robbing yourself of the gift you've been given. And, listen, I know patience can be hard. Especially when things aren't going the way you think they should. Even Abraham, the father of faith, tried to take a shortcut to bring God's promise about. But it didn't work. Let me say it this way: God doesn't need your help. He WANTS your obedience. And by "obedience" I mean following your heart. Because that's where God lives. That's where LOVE lives and God is love. The hard part is when we have an idea of what's what and then we try to force that idea into existence. And, again, I'm not saying rest is inactivity. Rest is Holy Spirit directed activity. And when the Holy Spirit is directing you, nothing will be able to stop you! Because love is all-powerful. Which doesn't mean MOST powerful. It means ALL of the power. Nothing can stand against love. And, realistically, why would anything want to? Our part in all of this is trust God. Have faith in God. Believe God. Trust that He has a plan. Have faith that He can bring it to pass. And believe Him that it is worth waiting for. Rome wasn't built in a day, as they say. Good things take time. And that's why I always say, "If you want something different, do something different. Unless you're building something. In which case, stay the course." Have patience. Be steadfast. Endure. And in that way you shall win the true life of your soul!