What I Know of Love.

I’m a believer that there is immeasurably more.

I heard God so clearly during a time in my life when I was settling for less. I knew there was something that I could never think, ask, or imagine waiting for me if I would simply trust Him. 

There is immeasurably more when you hand over a piece of your life to God and say, “Do what I can’t.” We are called to give everything over, invite Him to drench every inch of the space we take up in this life. 

I am learning that part of what we are asked to hand over, in addition to our hopes and plans, is the very people that we would want to keep for ourselves. It is one thing to pray for immeasurably more in your own life, but it is an even bolder prayer to pray it over someone else, especially someone you love and hold dear.

Of course, we want more for them. However, sometimes we want it only if we are allowed to come along, or if their path lines up with ours. And when we think there is a chance of being left behind, we start holding on to those we love more tightly. We try to keep a white knuckle grip on them in the hope that they will stay with us.

But the hard truth is that you may not be a part of the more that God has for their life. Maybe you are for a season, maybe you are forever. Only God knows that. And I think if we are going to be people who champion the immeasurably more that God wants to do in the lives of others—the people we love—we have to release our grip on them. 

Sometimes, there are places that God wants to send you that they cannot follow. Sometimes it is just the opposite. While the loss is never easy, there is such freedom to be found when we remember that these people were never ours to keep in the first place. 

They have always been and will always be God’s, and when we willingly hand them back to the Father when their time in our lives is up, I believe we honor their identity in Christ. We honor the plans that God has for them and only them. We tell God to do what we can’t in them and through them, even if we can’t be together. We trust and surrender. We make known our love.

The future is never not going to be a mystery. We can try to plan and make promises and control tiny pieces of it, but I’ve found the things that are crafted by my hand are never quite as great. 

I would be lying if I said that I didn’t sometimes feel the temptation to hold on for dear life. However, in those moments, I feel God place His hand upon mine, coaxing my grip to soften as He reminds me of the immeasurably more that He has promised.

So, what I know of love is this: loving someone means not just praying the immeasurably more for them, but celebrating with them when the more comes. Even if the more means that they have to go.  

Here's to the celebration. Here's to the more that I can't see.

words by Jacqueline Winstead