Love Multiplies

On Monday, one of my friends (and my church’s youth director) called me. He asked how I was doing during quarantine, listened to me go on and on about a bug that I found, and then he asked me if I would be willing to share a message on Thursday for youth group. There was no specific plan, but it would be me and another leader speaking, so we wanted to have a common theme.

After we got off of the phone, one of my favorite quotes came to mind. (A quote I love so much that I got it tattooed on me once I moved to Pittsburgh.) And as I thought about the quote, I was able to look at it in a different way. I wasn’t sure if that was what I was supposed to share, or if it was just something that God was trying to show me in this season.

Later on, we created a group chat to go over different ideas. The first idea that my fellow leader threw out was about the state of our hearts- which was the same theme that popped into my mind once I got off of the phone. Different thoughts came to my mind about this theme throughout the day, and so I sat down at the end of the night to just do a basic outline- but instead of just a basic outline, God just kept me going until I had this whole lesson typed out.

I wanted to share that lesson with you today.

My lesson is based on the quote “When a heart breaks open, love multiplies.”

I’ve shared many times about the fact that I lost my uncle at a very young age. This was obviously a very traumatic experience for my whole family, and we didn’t really know what to do. And with me being only 5 years old, I don’t think anybody really expected it to impact me the way it did. But, for the next 12 years of my life, I was stuck in this cycle of grief where I was angry and bitter and always feeling heartbroken. But when I gave my life to Jesus, a lot of that anger faded away. I was able to see how God had been working in the process, how He was making good things come from such a terrible thing- and He used me more after giving my life to Him. And I’m not saying that I’m happy my uncle passed away, but I AM grateful for what God brought from it, the people I got to meet, the love I got to share. Eventually, I got to a point where I could see that my love was very opinionated. My love wasn’t multiplying to everyone, it was just going to the people who thought the same things as me. I had this moment where God kinda told me “Kendall, that’s not what my love looks like.” And I realized that I still needed to love the people who had different opinions. I couldn’t belittle the feelings of the people who were on the opposite side of my beliefs just because their pain looked different than mine- their pain was/is still very real. And that’s when I heard this quote:

“When a heart breaks open, love multiplies.”

I love that it doesn’t say when a heart breaks closed- because that’s impossible. But it says when a heart breaks OPEN, love multiplies.

I shared 2 main points in my message the other night, and my first was this: A heart is a lot like a window. When a window breaks, stuff can come in and out. So when my heart breaks, what am I letting in? Because whatever I let in will determine what multiplies. So when I was grieving and angry, and all I was letting in was negativity, that’s all that was coming out! I was dishing out anger and judgment and a LOT of attitude. And no matter what I was letting in, nothing was healing it. Instead, the negativity was just rubbing against the broken spots and irritating my hurt and my heart even more!

But what do we know about Jesus?? We know that He is a HEALER!! Jeremiah 29:13 tells us that we will find the Lord when we seek Him with ALL our heart…wait a minute…that doesn’t say we’ll find Him when we seek Him with the polished or pretty PARTS of our heart, but it says when we seek Him with ALL of our heart!!! If I go to God and I’m just like “look at all of the things that are going great!” but then I’m completely ignoring how my heart is hurting or something that’s making me nervous then I’m not only lying to myself, but I’m lying to God and I’m not letting Him be who He is! We know that when we give Him a little, He turns it into a lot! When we give Him a little, He fills in for where we’re lacking and He works with the pieces and turns them into something BEAUTIFUL!

Y’all know that I LOVE art! If it’s artsy and crafty then I’m IN. And one of my favorite types of art (maybe that’s because it just makes me think about God) is mosaics! I love that an artist can take these broken pieces and turn it into this big, beautiful picture! They can hold these broken pieces in their hands and it may look like total nonsense to someone else, but the artist already has a plan in mind for what the bigger picture can be- and that’s what God does! God takes our broken pieces and fills in the cracks and creates something so incredibly beautiful with ALL of the pieces we give Him!

And the second point that I shared, which is the different view I had of this quote is this: When a heart breaks open, love multiplies- but will my hands match my heart? Will my hands have that open posture, ready for how God wants to use them? Will they be open in surrender? We are currently stuck in this quarantine, and that’s brought a lot of hurt for so many people. First off- It is TOTALLY OKAY to feel sad and upset! This is a crazy thing that we’ve never experienced before, so don’t try to push your feelings off to the side! But, I do want to remind you to not spend this whole time being so focused on what could be going so differently, because I really believe that in these moments where your heart is breaking open, there’s SO much potential for love to multiply! Yanno what’s really powerful? It’s not just your heart that’s breaking open, it’s the nonbeliever’s heart. We’re in a time where so many people are bored, searching for stuff to do. Or they’re hurt and looking for hope, and Y’ALL!!! WE HAVE THAT HOPE! We are going through the same thing that the nonbeliever is going through! And as their hearts are broken open, what’s going in??

I’m on my youth group’s outreach team with my beautiful friend, Meg, who I could go on and on about because she's just absolutely amazing. But before this whole quarantine, we were discussing different outreach ideas. Eventually, we got to this point where we were talking about going beyond the idea of going and handing out food on the street, but how we could be sending our students into their schools and workplaces with that heart to reach out to others. And I was thinking about that the other day, how we could be doing outreach through this quarantine season.

Something that’s been really heavy on my heart is the idea of encouragement, and a thought hit me the other day that really bothered me- why do we so often wait for birthdays to tell people how we feel about them?

My sister is my best friend. I love her like crazy. She’s absolutely amazing and she’s so beautiful and she’s so on fire for God. I’m incredibly proud of her, and I am so EXCITED to see what God is going to continue to do through her because I know that He has BIG PLANS to use her! But if I only ever told her that on her birthday, then that’s a problem. If I waited, along with every other person in her life, to just encourage her on her birthday, then what about those moments where we need family and community around us to lift us up and pray for us?

We have the amazing opportunity in this time to be an example of Jesus to people that may have never heard of Him or tried to have a relationship with Him. And the way that we treat people in this time speaks wonders. Because love isn’t just going up to someone and telling them you love them, it’s how you act and treat them and see them for who God’s created them to be! I want people to meet us and know that they are so loved by us. I want us to go back into our communities once this social distancing is over and if one of us goes into a crowded room, filled with people who don’t know Jesus, I want the person that’s feeling sad and lonely to look around and say “Hey, I might feel like I’m invisible right now, but I know that _____ sees me, and believes in me, and loves me.” Because so many people are feeling lonely right now, but if we just let God in, if we just open our hearts and our hands to Him, He can use us to change lives! And that starts NOW! So who can you reach out to today? Who can you love like Jesus today?

And the last thing that I will say is this: healing won’t come when we hold it all ourselves. If I’m holding the thing that’s hurting me in my closed hands, it will only continue to hurt me. But, the second that I open my hands and let it fall, it won’t continue to do damage. It might still sting for a little bit, ya, and it might leave a little bit of a mark, but God is a healer. He will come in and heal that hurt and use your open hands for beautiful and powerful things.

I believe that each and every person that reads this is about to do powerful things for God’s Kingdom.

Love you, beautiful people!