If Truth be Told, Everything Really is Every Thing - Grit & Grace

Everything is everything. Every thing.

There’s no way around it. It’s not an exaggeration or stretching of the truth. All things really does mean everything.

Everything is everything.

Everything is everything.
What is meant to be, will be.
After winter, must come spring.
Change, it comes eventually.

Hello, my name is Becky, and my brain is 80% song lyrics. I’ve got the tshirt to prove it. My kids love to remind me how my recollection of those lyrics isn’t entirely accurate most of the time. According to them, I’m also not very accurate in the quoting movie lines department either.

As evidenced by previous posts, when my mind is captivated with words to write, it’s usually accompanied by song lyrics or movie scenes that have somehow made a connection in this brain of mine. The lyrics in italics above to Lauryn Hill’s song are the latest example of that.

Everything means all. the. things.

This next verse in 1 Corinthians 13 is probably the most challenging. Here are all the things love should do according to verse 7:

it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. CSB

The NIV states it a little differently:  it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  And of course, I just love #punintended the MSG paraphrase of what love should do – puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end.

This is what love is, and this is what love does.

It bears all things, regardless of what comes.

Love believes all things, looking for the best in each one.

It hopes all things, remaining steadfast during difficult times.

Love endures all things, without weakening.

That, my friends, is love.

It hopes all things.

Love always believes and always hopes = love never loses hope.

This is not a rallying cry to disregard truth and suspend reality about people or circumstances, because remember: love rejoices with the truth…even when that truth is less than pleasant.

A love that protects doesn’t try to cover up the truth. It speaks the truth in love. Love doesn’t change reality in order to help me hang on. Hanging on to hope is what love does, regardless of my circumstances. My hope can be rooted and grounded in God and his love for me, and how I’ll never be separated from that love. That truth gives me confidence to hope, and faith to believe.

There is nothing love can’t face.

All things, always. Love bears and endures all of our present circumstances. And love believes and hopes all things for our future circumstances. Love hangs in there. It keeps on keeping on.

Love’s determination and persistence keeps our heads above water in the day to day of the present. And love’s absolute confidence in the future enables it to live in every kind of circumstance and continually pour itself out in behalf of others.

Because of God’s love for me in Christ that never ends, I am in turn enabled and empowered by the Spirit to love others in the same way.

The supernatural ability to persevere shouldn’t turn me into a robot. The determination to persevere is motivated by LOVE. The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is in me.

We’re talking about so much more than a feeling here.

“God is love” has started to hit differently since I started this study.

All things really does mean everything.

Love is not love which alters it when alteration finds it.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

Becky is a Miami native, and has lived here all of her life. Married to her husband for over 20 years, they lead a very active lifestyle along with their three teenagers and Riley, their rescue dog. Becky loves to teach, and has had the awesome privilege of home educating her children for over twelve years. When not teaching academics, Becky loves to equip, encourage, and empower women through the teaching of her group fitness classes. Becky and her husband lead various ministries, and their family loves to serve the community through the countless opportunities provided over the past twenty years+ in their local church. She enjoys filling her "free" time with reading, writing, watching movies, and just spending time with the family. Becky has a passion for living her life with grit and grace, and encouraging others to do the same.