Well, it’s a good thing Jesus didn’t live by this mantra or we would be without hope in the world.  It hurt Jesus to leave heaven and be born as a baby.  It hurt Jesus to fast 40 days in the dessert and overcome the temptation of Satan.  It hurt Jesus to be rejected and persecuted for doing the will of His heavenly Father.  It hurt Jesus to be beaten and abused because He said He was equal to God and able to forgive our sin.  And it hurt Jesus the most to be forsaken by His heavenly Father, as he suffered on the cross because of our sin (Matthew 27:46).  My sin hurt Jesus.  Your sin hurt Jesus.  It cost Him His very life.  Sin hurt God as He watched the rejection of His only begotten Son and sin continues to hurt God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as people continue to sin, ignoring, rejecting and rebelling against the love and authority of God over their life.

1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 

Love hurts.  Actually, life hurts.  You enter the world naked and crying, then it goes down hill from there.  Sin has defaced the beauty of this world and sin prevents us from living a life of beauty and enjoying life the way God intended.  Sin is the reason that life hurts and sin is the reason that love hurts.

I use to be annoyed by a sign a guy had in his office, “Life’s a bitch and then you die”.  My argument at the time was that I had a wonderful life. I was happily married with two small health children.  I was doing a work that I enjoyed and getting paid good money to do it.  Life was not a bitch for me and I avoided thinking about death because my joy was here on earth.  Now that I’m a born again Christian I am more annoyed by the slogan “Life is Good” because it is a subtle deception that says life is good just the way you are, so go enjoy life and spread the power of positive thinking.

The reality is that God created life “good” but life it is marred by sin and subject to death.  To express an appreciation for life without acknowledging a repentance from sin and the “real” good life that is found in Christ is an injustice to God and an injustice toward the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ.  The slogan “Life is Good” is meant to be mentally uplifting but to God it is morally misleading, offensive and actually heap more hurt upon Him, as it fails to mention where the good life is really found.  Mantras that fall short of expressing the purpose of life and should be changed to something like:  “Life is a bitch because of sin but Christ has overcome sin and death” or “Only a born again life in Christ is good” or how about “A life without Christ is NOT good” or better yet “Life is Crap unless you have Life in Christ”.

Psalm 136:1 “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

I John 4:8 “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.“

Because of our “self indulgent nature”, SIN, we try to satisfy our desire for love and the good life by loving our self and setting our desires on what we can get out of this world.   However, the desire we have for the good life, and the desire we have to love and be loved cannot be satisfied by our efforts, no matter how sincerely we are motivated or how hard we try.  Love that is motivated by self not only hurts but it destroys because it keeps us a prisoner to a love that can not satisfy and ends in death (eternal separation from God).  Only the God of the Bible has a love that can give us eternal life and a love that satisfies our soul.  By grace through faith in Jesus Christ we can have the love of God that we truly desire.  In Christ our desire to be loved is found and in Christ our desire for the good life is found and in Christ our desire to love others is found by sharing His love with others.

Christians bother to love because we follow the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who loved us enough to die in our place, so we can have eternal life with Him.  We love others to demonstrate and share “the love of Christ that is in us“.  We love others in order to lead them to the source of love, Jesus Christ.  We love others because we are commanded and compelled by God to reach everyone with the good news of Christ’s ability to forgive sin and grant eternal life to anyone who believes and accepts His offer.  We love others because there is a reward for those who love in Jesus’ name.  It’s a double blessing, one we enjoy now in the fellowship of God’s Spirit and one we will enjoy in heaven as a heavenly reward.  

The essence of love is “giving” of self and when you give of myself to help another person then you become part of that other person and I have “loved my neighbor as myself”.   And it’s not just giving physically but more importantly giving Spiritually that fulfills the commandment of God to love others.  Remind them of who they are in Christ, build a relationship in Christ if possible or a the very least build rewards for yourself in Heaven for your efforts.  Christian love hurts because we have to deny our sinful selfish sin nature in order to “give” the way that Christ loves us but Christian love also blesses because by allowing God’s love to flow through us we enjoy the blessing of God’s love as He blesses others through us.  Love hurts but love given in Jesus’ name will one day be worth the price of the hurt and our cries of pain will be turned into shouts of praise!

Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Revelation 21:4 “and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

Look, I am not trying to offer a feeble slogan like “have a nice day” to give you hope to endure the enormous amount of suffering and cruelty in the world.  Christians don’t operate under the power of positive thinking and optimism of the world but we operate under the power of Biblical thinking (by grace through faith in Jesus Christ) based on the reality of the resurrected life of Christ.  We don’t have a “hope so” kind of faith of the world but we have a “know so” kind of faith based on a born again life in Jesus Christ.  We have the real and living presence of God’s Holy Spirit living in us that propels and gives us the power to love others.  And I am not trying to offer an explanation for why God allows sin to fester in the world and why good people have to suffer.  I only know that God has a greater reward and purpose for those who cling to Christ through the valley of trails in this world.  And although I think we are living in the last days, where God is “Shaking Up”  the church, so they will do His final work of the great commission, the answer to the craziness and hurting in the world “is” and always has been found in the love of Jesus Christ.

Life is good, when it’s found in Christ

and though love hurts it’s worth the price

– Rogersings

Watch this video of Miss Kay Robertson as she tells about her humble beginning and the early years when Phil was drinking and abusive but the real story is how God delivered her and her family!

Not every day is a good day, live anyway

Not everyone tells the truth, trust anyway

Not everyone will love you back, love anyway

Not every game will be fair, play anyway  

From Tomi Lahren, “Final Thoughts”

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