Love me

Recently we at Mosaic had the privilege of helping to rebuild a house which had burned down. In the process of cleaning the house I noticed some artwork. Below are the photos. The artwork is a window into my soul, probably yours too, and perhaps all of humanity, capturing two opposing cries of our hearts and lives.

It seems like our world operates on the following principles...

Become, Believe, Belong...

If you act like us, and Become like us, then if you Believe what we do, we will let you Belong to us.

Jesus does it differently...

In Luke 14 we see Jesus interacting with a guy who had been rejected by the world. This guy was a tax collector who was admittedly a crooked tax collector who stole from the people. He felt so rejected by crowds that he didn't go anywhere near the rest of the people, but climbed trees to see Jesus.

While he was up a tree, Jesus walked straight up to him, and said "Hey man, we are going to your house to hang out. Come on down." After spending time with Jesus, Zac (the tax collector) then started behaving like Jesus, and believing Jesus. The order that Jesus operates in is...

You and I Belong. Full stop, you belong no matter what. Eventually after a while you start to Become like the people you hang around, and eventually you might start to Believe...



I feel like I live my life with a dual message, and I am guessing most people do too. Because we have never been able to Believe, or Become, we have never ever truly Belonged and felt loved. These photos were taken from the mess of the house which was burnt down. It was in the bedroom of a 12 year old boy.

The first photo was written on the wall, on top, the first thing you notice. It was quickly written in texta. The good news is that it wasn't permanent, it took time but was easy to remove. It was on the surface.

Those words paint a picture of someone who has been so battered in life that they are planning to reject you before you reject them. It is the story of how we live our lives in response to not belonging. It is a response to a craving that we is going on in the heart of us all.

A simple statement of a 12 year old boy who has lived a life of pain and rejection.

The second photo represents a greater longing of the heart, which often isn't noticed because of the message on the first photo. Too quickly I turn away from people scared off by the abrupt nature of "Fuck you". But this second longing the one which is written deeper, in fact it is engraved into the wall of our lives and engraved into our hearts. The picture describes it perfectly...



The hard part is to see past the first cry of the heart, the "fuck you" cry that people scream in order to protect themselves from the rejection experienced in the past. Deep down though we all have the same desire. "Love me". It is written on our souls, engraved into our hearts.

Love me...
James

Belong, Become, Believe...