I’m home really sick today, so this may be a little scattered and short between waves of nausea.  Please bear with me…

We talk about loving with our “whole” heart.  Our spouses, our families and loved ones.  But when it comes to our love for God, I think He would rather we love Him with our “hole” heart.

A whole heart is one that is already completely full and thus used for sharing with others.  The more full our love tank, the more capable we are of loving fully.  But let’s be honest.  None of our hearts are completely and perfectly full.  There are scars and dents and bruises that cause gaps and open spaces.  Those places of hurt that don’t seem to be able to find the piece that fits perfectly.

If our hearts were completely full naturally, we wouldn’t need God’s supernatural love.  THAT is the love that can fill in the gaps and answer the questions.  If we wait to have a whole and full heart before we love God, it will never happen.

But what if we love Him from the hole in our hearts?  What if we recognize our need for Him first and watch our love for Him follow as we allow Him to pour into that hole with His never-ending abundance of love, healing and restoration? This is a new thought for me.  To love Him from what I’m not, not just from what I am.  All those cracks between my heart, soul, mind and strength.  To let His blood fill every bleeding place in me.

As my stomach begins its fierce rumbling again, I’m reminded physically of all that I’m not.  I’m not well.  And there are pieces of not-wellness in every area of my life whether I want to admit it or not.  Places where pain and sin have left their marks and pits.  But instead of looking at those things as places where I can’t love God from, I want to recognize them as places where I CAN love God from as He fills those spots with Himself.  Those are the grace areas that lead my heart to a place of very humble and very thankful love. And I think that’s the exact kind of love He wants from me.

1 John 4:19 – We love because he first loved us.

Mark 12:30 – Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (ALL of it – even the gaps!)