Letting Love In

“You’ve got to let people love you!” I had seen the young man at work before but I didn’t know him, and I didn’t think he knew me. Yet his words, spoken with such tenderness, slipped past my pride and my anger. But what did they mean? As a teenager I thought I had correctly concluded that people didn’t care about anyone but themselves, and I was purposely living an isolated existence. But was it possible that I was actually the source of my problem, not other people?

Looking back, I believe God sent that message to me, through a stranger, to unlock the door of the internal prison I had built. Those words broke me down, just enough to set me free. And even though I still walk back into that cell from time to time, due to a poor attitude or poor choices, God is always there to gently guide me out again.

How is it we forget that we are loved and sometimes choose to isolate ourselves, or do other self-destructive behaviors? Don’t we think we’re worthy of love? Isn’t that why Jesus died on the cross? —Michael Mann

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. – Deuteronomy 30:19-20