Learning To Love Others -- Tat Blackburn

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

It's been a minute since I've updated the blog. And I'm still not really updating it. Today's post is a guest post from my friend Tat Blackburn. I've written about her a few times in the past six months, sharing a little bit about the fact that she went home to Jesus this past summer.

After Tat's passing to her heavenly home, I scrolled through our Instagram DMs, our Facebook messages, our texts, wanting to relive the moments that we'd shared. In amongst our Facebook conversations I came across a document she'd sent me in early 2017, when I was in my third year of Bible college. I was the Student Council newspaper editor at that time, and one month she'd submitted an article. 

That article is what I'm sharing with you today. 

She wrote about love, what it looks like to love others, and Jesus' love for us. As someone who had the great privilege of being one of Tat's friends, I can say confidently that she strove to live out that deep love that Jesus showed her everyday.

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I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of love. I mean everybody craves the ability to love someone and to be loved by someone. Our entire culture is based upon the idea that being loved by a man (or a woman if you’re a guy) is what makes you significant. 

Each year, I like to pick a word or a saying to focus on. Last year, I focused on the saying, “grace upon grace.” This year I find myself thinking a lot about love and how I can show that deep love that Jesus so graciously shows me everyday to others. 

The way Jesus loves us is incredible to me and it shocks me everyday. His love is the kind of love that I want to show to my friends, family and everyone I meet. 

Selfless, unconditional, full of grace, authentic love. 

I think that ultimately, loving others is the greatest way we can show them Jesus, it is our greatest witness as Christians. But this type of love is hard. It forces us to dig deep inside ourselves and do difficult things. It may force us to put or lives in danger, it make take us into some sketchy and dark places and it may require more of our time, energy and resources than we wish to contribute.

My favourite book in the entire world is called “Love Does” by Bob Goff. He talks about a “linebacker” kind of love. I love this image of love. It’s a kind of love that is strong, fierce and just hits you out of nowhere. The person that receives this type of love is completely shocked and caught off guard and just knocked out. 

This is how I want to love people, fiercely and wildly and without restrictions. I don’t want to be held back by my silly misconceptions and my ideas of what I should receive in return. I want to use love as a ministry tool and change the way that love is viewed in our society because real, God-given love doesn’t mean cheap sex and fleeting relationships.  It means being a shoulder to cry on, it means driving far to help out a friend, it means cleaning up and taking initiative, it means listening and not condemning, it means taking risks and putting your self out there, and it means sticking around even when things get tough or awkward. 

I think this is a challenge for all of us. Jesus loves us all in this way; He even took it so far as to end up on a cross. I’m not saying we all have to die in order to show that we love each other but I do think we need to take our love further. We can all be so selfish sometimes and I think that if we start focusing on how to love one another better not only our world but our school will be a better place as well.

-Tatiana Blackburn

1 comment

  1. Thank you Elizabeth for keeping her memories fresh. Love and hugs from Peru !!

    ReplyDelete

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