When we stand for love we stand for one another

​I used to believe some things that I no longer believe.

I used to advocate for things I no longer advocate for.

Seth Godin says, "Our standards aren’t set in stone. They change over time, often based on the situation we’re in."

There was a day when I was much more likely than I am today to make what I stand for look like the situation I'm in. Make what I stand for look like the people I am hanging out with.

I look back and I can say that I was always fairly popular. But I also must admit, I was often popular because I could look and believe like just about anyone. Like a chameleon, I could look and believe like just about any circumstance or situation.

I now know that was out of a longing to be liked. But today, I also know that while becoming well liked by many, I was never well liked by me.

When you spend a life chasing a chance to be liked, you do so at the expense of figuring out what it will take for you to like yourself.

Jesus changed all that for me.

Not the Jesus I grew up believing in, but the Jesus I got to know. And love. The Jesus who never once changed what he stood for to live up to the situation or circumstance he was in. The Jesus who never once sacrificed what he stood for as a way to be liked.

Jesus was once in the situation of being nailed to a cross. He could have avoided that situation if he had simply changed what he stood for. He didn't. Because his message was - what he stood for was - this beautiful idea that we are to love everyone no matter what.

That's what Jesus stood for. Love everyone always.

So hanging on that cross, hanging for what he stood for, Jesus was put to the ultimate test, the ultimate chance to prove just how firmly he was willing to stand for what he stood for.

And in that moment, he said, "Father forgive them, they know not what they are doing."

Hanging on that cross, he began advocating for his killers. He began advocating for the same thing he had unwaveringly always advocated for. No matter the situation. No matter the person.

Love.

Today I stand for Jesus because of the way Jesus stood for love. I am not nearly as perfect as Jesus was. Not even close. But today, more than ever, when I feel pulled to stand on a platform that is constantly changing, I choose to stand FOR something and not ON something.

Because way too often, when we stand on something, we stand on one another.

I'm not here to beg everyone to stand for Jesus. I am here to ask us all to consider standing for something that gives us the best chance to resist standing for things that don't look like love. Standing for things that might make us popular with many but unlikeable to ourselves.

Because it's interesting, the day I started fully standing for love is the day I began fully loving myself.

I have a long way to go - loving others and loving myself - but I am closer than I've ever been. Maybe because I've finally quit wandering in my beliefs long enough to explore who I am.

Who I am and what I stand for.