From Henri Nouwen’s “Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety” (which I highly recommend):

“Our needs can lead to wounds. We can wound people with our needs because we often force people to give something they do not have. We force people to be God for us. When we make other people into God we become demons ourselves. That is where the struggle is. Needs lead to wounds and the wounds create new needs, and on and on it goes. If we ask, ‘Where do my needs come from?’ we realize that our wounds come from someone in the past who hurt us because that other person was so needy.”

Henri goes on to talk about rejection. Not being loved. Not valued. When we don’t understand the Source of ‘original love’ as Jesus, we remain in a constantly wounded state, seeking acceptance and unconditional love. The something missing you may be feeling, in life or even on social media, is unconditional love.

We wound each other on social media platforms daily. The saddest thing I see is one wounding another, and that on and on over and over. You don’t hurt the people you love, not intentionally. And once you know you’re hurting them, to continue doing it makes it intentional. So how do we heal? How do we do better? We do what Jesus asks us to do…

John 13:34 “[Jesus said] A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

One another – that’s one after another. Not buckshot. Intentional loving of one another. I love people enough not to jump on every single word they say. I love people enough not to jump at every offense they throw. I love people enough to point out the awesome of their daily normal they might miss, call attention to the way they are inspiring me so they know how much their presence, their life force, matters to me.

You matter to me. That’s why you are reading this right now. And you matter to God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. You are loved just the way you are.

Have a glorious day!

Pastor Theresa