Love Your Wings by Pastor Brent Lokker

Last weekend, Leif Hetland came to Blazing Fire and ignited our hearts again with a passionate flame for Jesus.  He also spoke courage in us to be authentically ourselves as we add our “special sauce” to one another.  He also challenged us by asking, “Can we see the treasure in Saul and love him before he becomes Paul. Here is an excerpt from his book, Seeing Through Heaven’s Eyes: Jesus, the very incarnation of love, saw people through Heaven’s eyes.  In doing so, some were ennobled; others were enraged.  The sinners He dined with were honored.  The scribes, who were taking not of the guest list, were horrified.  Luke records one such dinner party: Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.  And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1-2) The loveless one sees only the caterpillar, while the lover sees the butterfly. Whose eyes do you want to have?  The eyes of the critic…or the eyes of Christ? If you answered as I think you did, be prepared to receive what Christ received—criticism.  He was criticized for seeing others through Heaven’s eyes.  I am sometimes criticized for doing the same.  And so will you be.  Some people will love you for it; others will loathe you.  And the loathing will likely come from the very religious. Sue Monk Kidd talks about the different responses she experienced from people who had seen the transformation that had taken place in her.  She talks about the critic and the effect the critic had on her. Sometimes people are happy with our wings and support the unfurling.  Sometimes, though, they’re afraid of our wings and try to talk us back into the old larval life. I encountered all sorts of reactions to the changes in my life.  When the reaction was negative, I sometimes went into a temporary tailspin, regressed, and questioned everything. The best advice I received on this subject was from another older woman who’d been through many cocoons and many pairs of wings.  I told her, “People won’t let me change.” (As if people could really do that.) What I was actually saying was, “I;m afraid of people’s reaction to my changes.”  The woman touched my cheek with her hand and said, “Love your wings.” Prayer: My Father in Heaven, How I long to see people the way You see them. Give me eyes to see all the beauty that is emerging everywhere around me. Help me to believe that there is a butterfly struggling to emerge from the gooey mess in all of our lives. Help me to believe in that butterfly, hope in that butterfly, love that butterfly. Thank You for the process of transformation and for being with me in the pain of that process. Don’t stop with the process, Lord, until the beauty of who You created me to be emerges, fully formed and ready to fly. Grant me the courage to rise above the earthbound criticism that comes from so many religious people and manages to worm its way into my life. Help me to love my wings.