All You Need Is

Think about the qualities of toilet paper: It can be tough. It can be soft. It can run out at the moment you need it the most, which ruins everything - or it can make a bad day that much less bad. Substitutes for it exist, but they really are just not worth investing in. Sometimes people waste it, which is not cool. Sometimes it runs out and then you're just sitting and feeling abandoned.You always need it, but there are times in life where you need more, or a different kind. And sometimes you have to ask for it, which is humiliating, but there's not really a way of getting around that. At times you have to give it to people when they ask for it or if you just think they might need it. It has been present in some moments that you never ever want repeated. Sometimes it breaks, and that is not great - the emotional consequences for that can be long-term. If you don't need it or use it, that's a problem. Sometimes the way it's packaged makes it look incredibly appealing, but once you have it, it's mediocre. When it's distributed in bulk, its quality is lower. You have to be taught and also learn from life experience how to use it wisely and well. 

The same things are all true of love. Not the kind of love that is of God, but the kind that humans can do. Each has a cost: for toilet paper, it's money, and for love, it's your heart. 

A heart is a lot to give. I'm often conflicted because I know that if I didn't have a heart, things would be easier. I wouldn't be distracted or slowed down by emotions. And it's the same with toilet paper: if it didn't exist, and if the reasons for needing it didn't exist, things would be easier. And maybe grosser. But God is love and love is good, and so is toilet paper. These two thing exist for a reason, which means to use them instead of wish them away.

But even the greatest toilet paper eventually will run out. And that's how we know that God's love is greater than our love or any toilet paper: His love can cast out fear, and nothing else can. Toilet paper cannot cast out fear because eventually it has to run out. Human love cannot cast out fear because humans are sinful and skewed and can't be everything another human needs. Both human love and toilet paper end, break, and disappoint, but God's love never ever will. 

And so true rest is found only in Christ (and not in the bathroom). In Him we can take the deepest of deep breaths. There is no hygiene product to which to compare Him. He is greater than the finest two-ply.  

Love,

Lauralicious