awake & free: thoughts on love & relationships//Brian Barnett

This begins a week of hearing from Cru staff and student men. We are really excited about all the wisdom and encouragement they will share. Enjoy!

Yuck! Cooties! Girls Rule, Boys Drool! Ew! (Jimmy Fallon’s “Ew” sketch is ringing in my ears).

I can hear the women screaming and running away while typing “:(:(:(”. All kidding aside, we have so much we can learn from each other. I've been married to Brooke for 7 ½ years and she has taught me so much about myself and about the Lord.

Here’s one of the biggest things I've learned/noticed/admired about Brooke:

She loves God & Christ passionately more than anything else. And not in just the romanticized version of following Jesus. (And not in the dogmatic law-abiding way of following God.) Her relationship with God is authentic, takes perseverance, is full of joy in the midst of heartache, and is full of a humble dependence on God in prayer. And her relationship with God naturally flows by faith into sacrificially serving and loving people.

By being with her I've experienced an authentic follower of Christ. More importantly, I’ve experienced an authentic follower in Christ.

Note: (don’t miss this!) The point isn't Brooke, the point is faith displaying itself in love and humility and authenticity. The point is to surround yourself with these types of people. To become that person yourself. To then bring love and life to people who aren't like you, who don’t think like you, who don’t believe like you. The point is to become all that God has made you to be. To become the person that God already views you to be! To become who you are in Christ.

There are hundreds of promises in the Bible about those who are in Christ. For example, in Christ we are a new creation, in Christ there is absolutely nothing that can separate us from the love of God, and that in Christ we have been given peace that surpasses understanding that will always guard our hearts and mind.

My favorite in Christ verse: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Galatians 5:6 NIV. (Let’s read the Message Version for a little more insight.) “For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is: faith expressed in love.”

When we are truly living our lives in Christ (dependent on Him, fixing our eyes on Him, letting His love live in and through us), than the only thing that matters is faith expressing itself in love.
Your religious laws don’t matter. The pressure you put on yourself to be a certain way or think a certain way, doesn't matter. The importance of how this guy or that girl views you, doesn't matter.

The only thing that matters in Christ is a faith that loves God deeply and a faith that sacrificially and passionately loves people. This is what I admired the most in Brooke when I met here as a sophomore in college. This is what I love the most about her still today.