Sunday, February 27, 2005

Unconditional love reminder

I woke up early today and drove to Indy by myself to shop and whatnot. I have had a lot of time to think this weekend and it's been great. I've yet to do homework, but that's what Sunday nights are for.
Lately I've been talking to my brother, Vincent a lot, which has been really cool because he's an awesome guy. He just turned 19 and he lives in Arizona. He moved out of my parent's house at the beginning of last summer and moved in with his girlfriend. Vinny is the type of guy that never cared much about school because in all honesty he was never really good at it. In fact, he almost didn't graduate high school, but my parents did a good job at being persistent with him.
For those of you who don't know I come from a "Roman Catholic" family. I use quotations because they aren't active in the church anymore nor do they care anything about it. They are supportive of me and my faith, but they aren't really interested in anything for themselves. All that to say that I'm the only one in my family who knows the Lord.
There was a point when Vinny came close to coming to God one time when he was visiting me in Illinois, but after that he went back to Arizona and got involved in the drug game. He is addicted to marijuana and he has dealt it too. I don't know if he is still a dealer... I can only pray he isn't. Because I begged my prents to let me stay in Naperville to finish high school I missed out on a lot of his life and we weren't that close for a long time. He saw me as a "holy roller" and didn't want too much to do with that part of my life. He still loved me, but I knew I had to watch what I said. He just didn't want to tell me things anymore because he thought I had become a tattle-tale.
Anyway, like I said earlier, we have been talking a lot more lately and it's been awesome. I put a lot of pressure on myself to please those who are close to me and so for he and I to be close, even when I'm physically far away is amazing. After I graduated high school and started college I think I learned to loosen up and he saw that and liked it. That's not to say that I believe differently, I have just learned to love... really love. Loving Vinny means loving all of him (unconditionally), his faults and all. I have always loved my brother, but I think for a long time I didn't love all of him because I knew things that he was doing weren't right. Reguardless of all of his faults, I love him.
It's funny how when you get saved and your life changes, the relationships that you have change. I have never not loved Vincent, or anyone in my family for that matter, but I have learned to love them the way Christ does and it's the most amazing thing I have ever learned. Unconditional love is beautiful.

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