August 2020 Love Letters: Day 17
Hello, I love you, won’t you tell me your name?
Hopefully you can recognize those lyrics from the infamous Jim Morrison. I have a t-shirt somewhere that has him on it along with Hello, I love you. I have been asking for one-word suggestions from friends to help me focus on a topic for each of these love letters to you. Tonight’s suggestion was the word crazy. I’m not a big fan of that word, but it is a pretty crazy world we live in right now, so we’ll go with it. How are you coping mentally lately, my darling? Sometimes, I struggle with my mental health as I’m sure so do you, especially lately.
Listen to me, love, and listen well: there is NOTHING unusual or wrong about struggling with mental health. There is such a huge stigma around mental illness, but most of us know what it feels like to have anxiety, depression, etc. Y’all know I’m a mermaid, and let me tell you, I have dove to the very depths of my mind in my struggles, and I have come back from the brink of insanity only because you have loved me to life. That is a crazy type of love, and it’s the same crazy type of love that God comes chasing after us with when we are going astray. When you have a personal encounter with God, there is no longer any denying the fact that God is real because GOD SHOWS UP.
You may think I’m crazy based on what you know about me or because I believe in God so strongly, but I can say that your opinion of me doesn’t hold a candle to the value I put into what our heavenly Creator thinks of me. The root of our identity is as a child of God, first, foremost, and forever, above all other titles we may ascribe to our Self. I have no need to prove God’s existence to you nor try to convince you that I am right; my faith is big enough and humble enough to know I don’t have to convince the whole world, I just have to show up and do my teeny tiny little part. I can sit here in my patchwork bell bottoms and all my tattooed glory and tell you about my love for Jesus and that is enough.
Jesus Christ is the greatest love of my life. I will always submit to my God for the rest of my life, no matter where WE go on this crazy journey together. The source of all love is strictly from up above. It comes down, and meets us here in the middle. The middle is our playground, kiddos. It’s where we come to learn, teach, grow…we are here, together, as equal parts in the body of Christ. None more important or valuable than another, none more special or ordinary than another. Equal. John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Many people are familiar with that verse, but I’ve got a little crazy to drop on you…do you know the verses right before it? I’ll leave some bread crumbs for you, but what I want you to figure out is why Jesus Himself would say that the Son of Man must be lifted up like the serpent. If the serpent is so evil, why in the world would Jesus compare Himself to it, and what does he mean by as the serpent was lifted up? That’s your homework, my love, until a later letter at least. I love you so, and I will write you again tomorrow!
Love always,
L Joy
