I couldn’t write yesterday and if I’m being really honest I’m finding it hard to write today but I feel like I must.
Yesterday I sat at Mass and realized that since Mr. Irish and I started dating/courting I stopped writing about what I want in a man and what a real godly man should be like. Maybe it is because I didn’t want to put pressure on him or maybe it was because I thought I found him so there was no point in writing about Mr. Godly Man anymore. Whatever the reason was, I’m convinced, perhaps now more than ever, that I must keep writing about Mr. Godly Man.
Sunday night I fell apart in the church because I needed to. As I sat there in the darkened, quiet church I stared up at the crucifix and thought to myself, “I never have to doubt or question His love for me. And if for some reason I do, His actions speak louder than words.” Make no mistake, His words, literally the Word Made Flesh, speaks quite loudly. His words are amazing, full of love and reassurance, comfort and strength. But His actions not only match His words, they speak louder than His words. Mr. Godly Man will act and speak in the same way. Jesus tells us, “as the Father loves me, so I also love you” (John 15:9). And in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he tells men that they are to love women as Christ loved the Church. Mr. Godly Man, therefore, will love as Christ loved us, his words will match his actions, but more than that his actions will speak louder than his words. His love for me and for you will be evident by the way he lives his life, by the love and respect he has for you and by the sacrifices he will make for you. His love for you, if it is real and true, will be shown in his words and his actions as he seeks to imitate Christ every moment of every day. Certainly he will fall short because he, godly though he may be, is not God. But the difference between Mr. Godly Man and Mr. Faker is that Mr. Godly Man will keep trying and he will allow the love you have for each other, and more importantly the love that he has for God, to fill him with the strength to keep trying even when the going gets tough.
That’s the jist of the blog that I had in my head yesterday before I was overcome with…life. Today, there is more to this story and it goes like this:
I have no idea what I’d like to write. There are a million jumbled thoughts in my head and I have no idea where to begin. I’d like to write some brilliant post about what’s going on, some great insight that I’ve learned in the last 24 hours but I’m not sure I’m there yet.
Love is shown in actions, right? Perhaps the lack of words, the silence can speak louder than any words can. Perhaps doing what someone asks, even if it isn’t what you want shows more love than any words ever could. Perhaps walking away, laying down your own heart in the process, shows a love far deeper than anyone ever knew existed. Perhaps it is in laying down our own lives and our own desires for those that we love that we discover just how deep our love is. Perhaps in dying, we can rise to the realization that our love is true, no matter how much it is about to be tested. Perhaps it is only in letting go that we can ever receive. Perhaps our self-sacrifice speaks the loudest of all. I hope it does, and my hope in this comes from Jesus, who laid down His life and His heart in the process and showed us a love far deeper than we had ever conceived of. His death allowed for true love to triumph over everything. In that simple truth I find hope.
And I can’t help but meditate on His words:
“No one has greater love than this,to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” – John 15:13
“This I command you: love one another” – John 15:17
“Remain in my love” – John 15:9
“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” – Matthew 16:25
May our words always match our actions, but more importantly may our actions speak louder than our words and may they always speak of the love God has for us.
What I’m Listening To/What Is Stuck In My Head:
“Let It Go” by Tenth Avenue North
“You Were On The Cross” by Matt Maher
“Fight” by Patrick Finegan
“Empty and Beautiful” by Matt Maher