I AM loved

                        In the long run, who's going to be feeling like the idiot?  So many times I've shied away in conversations or felt like the odd man out because I don't enjoy discussing casual sex or what kind of birth-control I use, or my weekend I can hardly remember because I was to wasted to recall.  Clearly, I will not be the one feeling like an idiot about yesterdays choices.  When you get just a little bit older past your teenage years you will realize that yes, the wisest man on Earth was right when he said, "youth is vanity."  It will pass, so what will you take with you into adulthood...?  A couple of kids from unwanted pregnancies, innumerable heartbreaks from young love gone sour?  Perhaps contempt for your parents or a chip on your shoulder because the world did you wrong?  Blame for everybody else while never evaluating yourself?
                      Why don't you minimize the many worries in this life?  I have 0% chance of getting pregnant, 0% chance of contracting a sexually transmitted disease.  I will never have to decide between killing an unborn fetus or birthing a child I didn't mean to create.  That's one less choice I have eliminated from my life.  My life doesn't have to be more complicated than it needs to be.  I don't spend my time debating abortion or gay rights.  There are so many things that we focus on that distract us from our relationship with Christ.  Honestly, those things aren't my biggest concern because I will never have to make the choice of abortion and I'm not gay.  I understand that God has a standard, and there is right from wrong.  But there's something more important to me than all those rules and morals and black and white.  It's these questions I ask myself, "do you think young women all over the world would be having to make the choice of abortion if they really felt loved by God?  Do you think young men and women would be turning to the same sex for love if they knew the love of Father God?"  They are confused, and the truth is they have the same void on the inside just like you and I do.  That void is filled by one thing and one thing only: God's love.  When you know the love of God you'll want to be pure.  When you truly experience His love you'll desire to be holy like He is holy.  Maybe we need to stop telling people they're so wrong for all the choices they've made and start showing them what the love of God feels like.  It's not surprising that young people are confused and desperate for love of any kind.  At this stage in our backwards society people will pretty much take whatever they can get to feel loved.
                      For one moment will you ask yourself, what if?  What if there is a God that exists? And this God not only rules over you but created you and cares for you like no one else can, like no one else does or ever will?  What if He loves you just the way you are, yet loves you enough to tell you that you need to change?  What if you live and die and never even try to let yourself be loved by a heavenly Father?  For once just shut off the voice that says, 'what if it's not real', and ponder what if it is?  Keeping yourself pure is important for your self worth and important to God, but the desire to be pure and live a holy life comes from knowing a pure and holy God who loves you.  Don't get caught up in trying to be so pure that you miss the reason why you're doing it.  As the love of God fills your life it changes you.  I would not be who I am today or make the choices I make if I didn't know a love not of this world.  God has a higher standard for your life and it begins with love, not self-imposed purification.  Today, let yourself be loved by God, and see if you don't change your mind about a few things.  I am pure because I am loved by God.  I am not pure to try to win over His affection or appease His wrath, because the truth is He would love me just as much if I were a whore or a saint.  At the end of my life I will feel like a total idiot if I didn't let you know that you are loved by God; messed up, broken, confused, whatever you are...you are loved.  What if this love could change your whole life?  What if you let it?  I did, and I found out that I am loved.  I am always loved, even when I don't feel like it.  I am loved regardless of every circumstance in my life, every failure and every shortcoming; I am still loved.