LOVE PEOPLE with the ATTITUDE of an athlete.
“…You must love your neighbor in the same way you love yourself… ” Mark 12:30 (TPT)
Athletes are known for their attitudes. Even if all seems lost, they never give up! What if we loved people like that? No matter what they do or have done, we just love. However, sometimes that means we have to strip off the masks & show our scars. Show them they aren’t the only one.
VULNERABILITY
The enemy of your soul knows that WE ARE BETTER & STRONGER TOGETHER! When we believe the lie that “we are the only one,” we isolate in the moments we need people the most! Vulnerability is so hard because it means exposure. It’s showing the things that you fear make you unloveable. However, in the exposure, you open up the opportunity for someone else to see your scars and call out “me too!”
If we don’t know our value and worth (IDENTITY), we are incapable of letting our walls crumble to reveal the raw, unfiltered image that people NEED to see. Someone somewhere has wounds that have yet to heal and seeing your scars could be their lifeline. To someone else, those things you strive to hide mean hope & healing, not flawed & unworthy.
How can vulnerability lead us to love people with the attitude of an athlete?
LAY ASIDE EVERY WEIGHT: We aren’t doing this alone. We don’t have to carry the weight of LOVING within our own power. We would fail miserably every time. “We love each other because He loved us first.” 1 John 4:19
RUN YOUR RACE WITH ENDURANCE: Just because we learn to let our walls crumble does not mean that you won’t have to chip away at someone else’s to get through to them. Don’t give up. People are worth the effort.
FIX YOUR EYES ON JESUS: We can love the unlovable and reach the unreachable when our eyes are fixed on the one whose love never gives up!
When we truly LOVE people well, we approach them with a love that will never quit or give up. It’s a love that will push past the uncomfortable. It says what needs to be said with kindness and does what needs to be done with care. It always has the bigger picture in mind. It chooses to see the potential in people and speaks life into those things.
Everyday is an opportunity to love people better. Let’s take every chance we have to do it with the attitude of an athlete.