How To Love…

My thoughts on mostly all things are coming to you from the perspective of a believer with many non-believing loved ones. Many of the people I love the most come from non-religious backgrounds and have seen only negative examples of what a believer looks like. Wrestling with how to be a Christian is difficult, but mostly heartbreaking as I see their responses to other believers. So, I will work extra hard at being a realistic, welcoming, loving and discerning believer in my world.

Rapper Lil Wayne wrote a song titled, How To Love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Gf4-eT3w0

This song follows the life of a girl who is born to a woman in an abusive relationship. The story continues as the daughter grows up and due to circumstances, becomes a stripper. Through an extreme example, this is a very plausible storyline of the effects of misplaced value on sex and money. In this case, the woman felt like there was no other choice and in her employment we see two things. We see that the men in the club and the singer who is speaking to the woman are seduced into the choices which they think will produce satisfaction. As Wayne says, “You had a lot of moments that didn’t last forever/Now you in a corner tryning put it together/How to love, how to love” the affection she had seen and been searching for has left her empty. The second thing we see is her self worth. Due to the lie that sex and money can, in fact, make one’s life better, she has lost the concept of her body being worth anything more than what drunk men tuck into her bra.

Paul Tripp, while talking about sex and money states, “Both offer you an inner sense of well-being while having no capacity whatsoever to satisfy your heart. Both seduce you with the prospect of contentment-producing pleasure, but both leave you empty and craving more” (17). While struggling through the real life application of this and the conviction that followed quickly after I wondered a few things. Mostly about the emptiness. The hollow hole that is bore into one’s soul and is incapable of being filled with either of these preoccupations.

However, as believers we do have something that can fill that hole. There is something that can transform. This is beautiful for us, but what about this girl? What do this quote from a textbook and music video mean to my life and why does it matter? It matters because as a believer, I am called to love. I am called to reach out and to do so as Christ would. John 13:34 clearly outlines how I should act as a Christ follower, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another”. I wonder what this world would look like if this was put in practice more often. I also wonder what the world would look like if we, when talking with non-believing friends, extended grace and created an environment where in they felt comfortable. There is no way to share the gospel if the people who you want to hear it, wont listen to you.

If non-believing rap singers can address the dangers of sex and money…the heartbreak that is attached and the hurt that comes with the emotional and physical abuse brought on by an over sexualized world, shouldn’t we? Shouldn’t we speak out in love, listen to our loved ones, and offer advice in a non-condemning way?

Here is the link to a great ministry opportunity where this is done first hand.

http://www.todayschristianwoman.com/articles/2014/july/how-to-love-stripper.html