6 minute read
Coffee Chats: True Love
written by Tina Kadolph from Love Missions & Palate Coffee Brewery
HELLO BEAUTIFUL FRIENDS,
I have my Palate coffee in hand, do you? I am so excited to hang out with you girls and chat. February is the month of love, so I thought we could talk about LOVE, true love.
Let us start with my story and how I found love. Coming from a life of abuse, I had no idea what love looked like. From my perspective, love looked like hurt, pain, lies, loneliness, desperation and so much more. I had no idea who God was or that there even was a God. I had just come out of an abusive relationship that almost ended my life.
After the police arrested my abuser, I was in a hopeless state. I felt I had nowhere to turn and that I was only good for one thing: being abused. That was my life; that is what I thought my identity was. I was tired, I was defeated, and I had given up.
I had been through so much that I decided life was no longer worth living. I was planning my suicide when a friend invited me to a party. Maybe it would change my mind. Either that, or it would be the last thing I did before leaving this horrible life.
I went to the party, but I still felt so alone. The atmosphere was not helping at all and I wondered why I had even gone. The more I sat there, the more alone I felt. I sat by myself and watched everyone around me seemingly having so much fun. Why couldn’t I have fun? Why couldn’t I be normal? Why was I meant to live this horrible life? I wanted desperately to be someone else, to disappear.
As I sat in my loneliness, a guy I had seen around walked up to me. He asked me how I was doing, to which I replied, “Not very good,” but thinking, here we go again. He asked if I wanted to talk, but I said no. He looked at me with kind eyes and said if I ever needed help to give him a call. That was before texting, of course. I thought that there was no way in this life I would ever call him. There was not one man on this earth that I trusted. I knew he would not be any different.
But as I went home that night, I looked at all the pills I had prepared before the party. I held them in my hands, and again considered taking them. In that moment I felt there was no hope, no reason to live.
(Psalm 147:3, ESV)
Suddenly, I heard a voice in my head say, Call that guy. What? Are you crazy? I don’t want any more men in my life. I don’t want any more hurt and pain. I’m done!
Then the voice again said, Call that guy. So weird.
What I didn’t know then was that this voice was God. I didn’t understand then, but I picked up the phone and called. Carl answered and was a little surprised that I called. He never expected me to call after how I had responded to him.
We talked, and then he asked if I wanted to get coffee. (How ironic since we now have a family-owned coffee shop. God has such a fun sense of humor.)
I left the pills on the table and never turned back. I didn’t even understand why I was going, I just went. The next day, he sent me one red rose and a card that said, “Don’t ever let anyone determine your value. You are beautiful and valuable and have so much worth.”
No one had ever said anything even close to that to me before. I wondered, Is this real? Could I dare to believe there was hope? I was so scared, but I moved forward and hoped this could be a chance at love. I walked in complete fear that it would turn into abuse at any moment. But it never did.
(Isaiah 41:10, ESV)
God sure did walk me through my fear. He held my hand and was by my side every step of the way. What a beautiful display of His love for me.
On January 27th we celebrated 37 years of marriage. It has not always been an easy journey, but with God, anything is possible. Even the seemingly impossible is possible. There is no doubt in my mind that God brought this amazing man into my life. Through his love, he led me to Jesus.
Carl opened my heart to a God I never knew or wanted to know. Carl, with his love and kindness, showed me a God whose love is not like any man, even this wonderful man. God’s love is unconditional, unfathomable, indescribable.
He loves you. He loves me. He loves the world so much he sacrificed his only Son. Who can love like that? The Bible tells us of this kind of love in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
Now I have shared my story of finding love, and I think Carl and I have something very special, but even that isn’t the kind of true love I am talking about here. I am so thankful God used Carl to bring me to Him. But Carl”s and my love for each other does not come close to God’s love for each of us. God’s love is beyond human love; it is beyond anything we can understand. There is nothing more powerful than the love of God. His love heals the brokenhearted, His love transforms and restores lives, His love can tear us from the grip of the enemy, His love sets the captives free, His love set THIS captive free. Oh, how He loves us!
Jesus is our hope. Jesus is our healer. And when we allow Him to walk this journey with us, we can overcome anything. I have learned that it is not what happens to me or you that defines us, it is how we respond that defines us. It is the decisions we make. When we decide to surrender to Jesus and let Him use our stories to bring Him glory, not only are our lives transformed, but so are the lives of others.
Girls, let me tell you - Satan worked hard to destroy me, but God had a beautiful plan for my life that the enemy could not stop. That same God has a beautiful plan for you. I am not special; the same God that loves me, loves you. No matter what you have experienced or are going through, God has a plan for your life.
So don’t give up, don’t give in. Let your one, true love heal the inner parts of your heart. You will never see the lives God has planned to change through your story unless you surrender to His love. His love is waiting to fill your heart, cleanse your soul, and purify your mind.
Are you ready to love your true love? He already loves you. He is just waiting for you to accept that love.
(1 John 4:19 ESV)
Thank you, ladies, for our time together. I am so looking forward to what God has for us next time.
