Should we Love in the Open? (I'm not talking PDA)

Love makes you feel alive.

Love makes life worth it.

Love hurts sometimes.

You can try to go through life without love, simply going through the motions to accomplish what needs to be done and getting through it.  Or, you can put your heart into the things you do and toward the people you encounter.

I am all for real connections, life talks, and making the most of opportunities.  Getting to know people deeper than the surface makes life so interesting and fun – and you can bond in ways beyond any conversation about the weather.  Sooo worth it.

But here’s the thing.

When you open your heart to be vulnerable with people, to love them, to truly care about them and invest in getting to know them … you can get hurt.  But it’s a risk well worth taking.

I just hate goodbyes.  I feel like my life has been in constant transition since May, and as soon as I really invest in something, it’s time to move forward.  But I’m embracing the exciting year God has given me – from college to being a Day Camp Leader at camp this summer to student teaching somewhere new, and now on to my second student teaching placement.

I absolutely LOVE meeting new people.

Seeing how people from all different walks of life do life.

I like to embrace the awkward when it arises and get to know people too.  :)

So, I spend an INCREDIBLE summer loving kids and counselors and receiving sooo much love in return – but then I had to leave two weeks early and jump into student teaching starting with band camp.  It was weird being in a new place only knowing a few people, much different than my summer community, but I loved it!  I learned 170 kids’ names and did what I could to teach them music!  …But 10 short weeks later, I’m off to what’s next.

I could have done the minimum requirements and called it good.

Why put your heart into something that’s going to end, right?

…Nah.  Think about it – such is life!  Life is short.

One student told me, “You really do smile a lot.”  I said, “Life’s good!”  Then he started laughing and said, “When you said that, it just made me think, ‘YOLO!’”

Lately I’ve been inspired by a new song called “#LITO” or “Love in the Open” by Press Play.

They say:

“You only live once,

so tonight I’m gonna live it well…

This is the time
To live
This is the time
To dance
This is your life
Your chance
To love in the open
Love in the open.”

It’s safer to only open your heart to love and care about other people when you know they’ll love you in return.  But life is short – make the most of it.

Some lonely child just needs a friend.  Some teenage girl simply wants someone to tell her she’s beautiful.  A tired mother only wants a warm meal and a chance to rest.

Don’t play it too safe, in terms of your capacity to love and serve other people – it’s easier and safer to withhold your love, to have superficial relationships when you know you won’t see the other person much and save your energy for your few closest friends or for your own gain.  But you know what?  Maybe that person needs love more than anything else.  Maybe it would change their world if you spent five minutes truly engaging in a caring conversation with them.

If I hadn’t opened my heart to love these kids, to get to know them, to put my heart into my teaching and try my very best to give them all I could … I wouldn’t have made such a strong connection, and now it wouldn’t hurt to say goodbye.  If I had stayed impersonal, if I had viewed it as just another class required to graduate.  But you know what?  Then it wouldn’t have been worth it.  I also would not have felt all the joy and fulfillment of the experience.  Giving to others is sooo rewarding.

You know who else loved even though it hurt?  Who never gave up on others, no matter how much they betrayed him or how poorly they performed…?  Our Savior.  Jesus is the perfect example of this.  God could have walked away when things got sticky.  He does not need humans to be complete.  He is God, after all.  No.  He chose to lay down His divinity and become a humble, poor man and walk this broken earth, to show people what Love is, who He really is, and what good He has in store for them.  And He went farther than that.  He was rejected for His revolutionary love, and people crucified Him.  He died … a humiliating, excruciatingly painful death … all for Love.  Because He didn’t want His people to live empty, broken lives anymore.  He came to restore!!  He rose from the grave, defeating death and establishing LIFE forever, all for love!

So can’t we love people in return?  Even though it puts us out there, Christ is our strong foundation because He already loves us more than we can ever fully understand!  So we can stand firm, unshaken, and pour out our lives for other people in the time that we have!!  It’s soooo worth it!! :D

“Greater love has no one than this that He laid down His life for His friends.” – John 15:13

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for men, for you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.” – Colossians 3:23-24

Let’s go!  Live out Christ’s love!  I will miss the kids here so much, but I can only hope and pray that God worked through me to show them love, teach them music, and show them how valuable they are!  Now I’m off to love more kids and live my life out loud wherever God takes me!  Join the exciting journey of living as God leads!  :)

I'm not ever selling out love
A love out loud is what it's all about
Giving everything to see the lost get found
Yeah, it's going down
You, you, you want me to take my light
Fit it in your box right
I want u to look me in the eye eye eye

Ready or not here here I come
I'm about to show you where the light comes from
Ready or not here here here I come
This is who I am
I won't hide it
I'm a take it all over the world
To the young to the old every boy and girl
Ready or not here I come
I'm a show the world where the love is

I refuse to keep this buried deep inside of me
Yeah this little light of mien, it's time to let it shine a bit
'Cause there's no point in hiding it
It's everything I am
The source of all my hope
And it's the reason why I stand
And I pledge allegiance to be somebody real
There's no more holding it back
I'm showing them how I feel cuz love is more than a word
It's a noun, and a verb, and hiding it is absurd
Ya heard

 “Ready or Not” – Britt Nicole and LeCrae