On Sunday, September 27 I shared my final Sunday service with New Hope Community Church as their pastor.  What follows is a restatement of my final message to them.  It is a shorter version with far less explaining, but it is an expression of the heart of my desire for the church I have and will continue to dearly love.

You have everything you need for life and godliness.  God has granted it to you.  You have enough.  As I end my time as pastor among you, I do so knowing that I have ever been an under-shepherd, serving at the pleasure of your true Shepherd, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, our resurrected Champion and undisputed Sovereign.  I leave you with a peace in my heart that flows from the confidence that our Chief Shepherd will never leave you nor forsake you.  He has chosen for us what I would not have chosen for us, but I am convinced that His is the greater vision, wisdom, and judgment, so I step out in trust with you into His mysterious calling.  

As I have said each week over the last several years: “You are, before anything in your lives, disciples of Jesus Christ.”  Because of this, your choice to gather in the name of Jesus and to associate yourselves with one another around Him makes you His church.  Consequently, you have been given by your Master certain necessary and enduring gifts: His Word, His Spirit, and His Body.  These gifts, graciously given, gratefully received, and humbly utilized, are all that are required for you to thrive and powerfully act in this struggling community and faltering world.  Though you will be without a professional pastor on staff, you will not be without any of these great and powerful gifts.  You have the Word of your Master freely available to you always.  You have the Holy Spirit of your Master dwelling in your very flesh and actively moving among you to accomplish His purposes.  You have one another, saints of various maturities, experiences, and points of view who are bound together by your common allegiance to Someone who is greater than all of your differences.  

Whatever you may lack, you do not lack anything that is necessary for your powerful and effective participation in God’s great kingdom work here and now.  Do not be wooed by the world’s erroneous and dangerous assumptions about what is possible, what is necessary, and what is reasonable.  Do not be led into the folly of trusting in the fleshly and mortal resources of earth.  You belong to a Kingdom which has its seat of power in Heaven itself, which is ruled by a transcendent and yet imminent Ruler with whom nothing is impossible and who needs no permission from anyone to act.  His are all the resources of this universe, and those are the very  resources He delights to lavish on His faithful servants for the sake of His mission and purpose.

Are you tempted to put the great kingdom work of this church on hold until a new pastor is secured?  Are you flirting with the idea of pouring all your attention and effort into that pursuit?  I beg you: resist that temptation and reject that attractive idea!  Carry on in the work of your Master, for He is still among you and always will be.  Remember His words to His servants: “And I am with you always (lit. ‘all the days’) even until the end of the age.”  Everything you need to be great is already yours!  Everything you need to accomplish His great and glorious work is already available to you!  

His Word is yours.

His Spirit is yours.

His Body is yours.  

God willing, you will soon have a full-time pastor on staff to lead you as a community of disciples.  I will continue to pray that our Father provides this for you - and quickly.  But I have a more pressing prayer.  That prayer is that in the time between this moment and that, you will - each of you - take seriously these gifts that have been given to you and give yourselves wholly to the mission.  If you will, the man who comes to lead you will blessed.  If you will, you will be blessed.  If you will, the community to which you belong will be blessed.  

The kingdom of light and life will advance even as the kingdom of darkness retreats.

The spiritual chains of those now bound will be loosened and then finally broken by the power of our Master who moves through His servants.

The eyes of those now spiritually blind will be opened so that they can see the glory, beauty, and goodness of our Father, our Master and the Spirit.

The spiritual hunger of those now starving will be satisfied by the life-giving truth and love of the man Jesus.

Mortal hands will reach out to serve, but they will be immortal hands that take hold of darkened and hardened hearts.

Mortal tongues will dare to speak, but it will be the Immortal One who calls the lost to come home.  

Mortal feet will walk, but it will be the Immortal One running to meet the homeward-bound child who is still a far way off.

Whom do you need to be changed?  You have Him.

Whom do you need to be full of joy?  You have Him.

Whom do you need to teach you and train you to be like Himself?  You have Him.  

You have Him, and so everything is yours.  You do not need to slow down.  You do not need to stop.  No, you need only to press forward toward the prize to which our Father has called you heavenward in Christ Jesus.  As individuals, as families and as a community, seek Jesus, serve Jesus, and watch Jesus move.  

He is alive.  He is strong, wise, and good.  He is among you, and He intends to move through you.  May His ever be the face on which you gaze, the voice that fills your ears, the hands that  hold you up, and Kingdom in which you thrive.

May it be so because you are my dearly beloved, and, more importantly, you are, before anything in your lives, disciples of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

 

Go Without - Because You'll Never Go Without

Abraham, go from your father's homeland without knowing where you're going (Genesis 12:1).

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Lot, go from Sodom without anything but your wife and daughters (Genesis 19:12-17).

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Mary, go into pregnancy without a husband or a 'reasonable' explanation to offer to people (Luke 1:26-38).

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Apostles, go on mission for me without bread, money or extra clothes (Luke 10:4; 22:35).

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You on the rooftop, go from your home without going inside to get any of your possessions (Luke 17:31).

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Beloved Son, Jesus, go to earth with nothing but a mortal and frail infant body.  

The followers of YHWH are often called to do some seemingly unreasonable things as they live with Him.  He's an independent thinker, you know.  He has certain ideas about what ought to be done, and we 'reasonable' human creatures hear of them and say, "That doesn't make sense!"  [This reaction would be humorous if it weren't so arrogant.  At a certain point we have to come to the realization that there is a difference between saying, "I don't understand that," and, "That doesn't make sense."  In the first case, I am admitting that I lack something.  In the second case, I am declaring a fault in the other.  When dealing with God, it's always wiser to admit your own lack than to declare a fault in Him!]

When you live with a person like YHWH, you have to come to grips with the fact that He will often do things and call you to do things that do not make sense to you.  There will be many ideas He has that make sense to Him and to those beings in His universe who know more and better, but that don't make sense to us.  What now?  Do you trust His understanding or yours?  Do you go and do, or do you stay and question?  Do you humbly accept His authority to command, or do you arrogantly appeal to your perceived right to understand?

The person who has come to trust Father God can obey in quiet submission because that person knows that He is competent, kind and wise.  That person knows enough of God's promises (and of His determination to keep them) to maintain a steady confidence that they will be ultimately and persistently well as they obey His call.  "If I go where He calls without taking what I'd really like to have as my security, then He'll make sure I have what I need in each leg of this journey."

Do you have absolute, steady, and patient confidence in your Father's careful provision for you?  Do you really believe your Master Jesus when He tells you that you are worth much more than the many sparrows which your Father tenderly cares for?  Are you convinced that He has assigned you a vastly greater value than the flowers in the field which He personally clothes in beauty? (see Matthew 6:26-30)

For most things in life, you ought to be wise in planning and making thoughtful provision for what you can.  This is good stewardship of God's kingdom resources.  Remember, though, that there will be times in most servants' lives during which God makes a move that is out of the ordinary and utterly unexpected.  He will call His people to be risky, daring and adventurous because defeating an enemy like Satan and dismantling a kingdom like his takes extraordinary measures.  God has proven to be a creative, outside-of-the-box and out-of-the-ordinary thinker.  Will you join Him in what He's doing even if it strikes you as a little reckless?  A little foolish?  A little risky?  Trust will move you to go where He leads and to, like another daring servant, say, "I am the Lord's servant; may [His] word to me be fulfilled" (Luke 1:38).

You are well, and you will be well.  Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.  He knows what you'll need before you'll know.  He is perfectly capable.  Perfectly capable.  Whether you are or are not perfectly capable is entirely irrelevant to the question of your obedience.  When your humble willingness and His perfect capability embrace, the result will be an adventurous and powerful life with the Living One that is marked by present and eternal blessing that only our Father could think up for us! 

The Gospel in Motherhood

As disciples of Jesus, we're meant to meditate on the connections between the good news of Jesus and the lives we live every day.  We just celebrated Mothers Day on Sunday, and motherhood is one of the most fundamental realities there is, so I was drawn to meditate on the connections between the gospel of Jesus and motherhood.  Here are a few of the beautiful connections I can see:

Life as a Gift

When a wee little person is being developed in his/her mother's womb, life is granted by the kind hand of the Divine Knitter, and, at the same time, mommy offers physical support and nourishment.  This little child does not do a single thing to earn or deserve or accomplish his/her own life.  The child's life is a gift.  Others act, and life for this little one is the breathtaking result.

Think on it, your whole existence is a gift!  The very fact that you are sitting/standing/lying there reading these words at this moment proves that Someone wants you to exist in His universe.  Now go even further: if you have received new life as a disciple of Jesus, you are alive in God's kingdom as a result of the decisions and actions of others.  You couldn't have given yourself life.  You couldn't have initiated the process that led to your new birth.  You didn't convince God to send Jesus nor convince Jesus to come.  You are the recipient of a gift that was given to you, and you didn't have to contribute a single thing to it!  How kind our God is and how grateful we ought to be to Him!

Life Through Pain

 As wonderful as the process of pregnancy and delivery can be for a woman, it is universally understood that there will be severe physical discomfort and pain in the process.  The just but awful words of the Creator echo in delivery rooms everywhere: "I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children" (Genesis 3:16, NIV).  It is the delivery that is most painful, of course, but there is discomfort and pain along the forty week journey to get there, as well.  An aching back, swollen feet, 'morning sickness', and more accompany a woman along the way.  

What comes as a result of the pain, discomfort and suffering, though?  Life, family, joy, and an eternal addition to God's universe.  Is the pain, discomfort and suffering worth it?  For most mothers the answer is a resounding, 'Yes!'  Jesus, in concert with our Father in Heaven, would answer this question just as positively.  Does Jesus consider all of His suffering, humiliation, pain and agony worth the life that resulted?  Yes!  He is delighted by the lives that are reborn and renewed because of His heroic and loving sacrifice (remember the rejoicing He described when the coin, sheep and son were found?).  The Father is delighted that He chose to send His beloved Son to secure eternal life for all who believe.  Yes, it was and is His good pleasure.

Transformed by the Unseen One

Why does a pregnant woman change her diet, give up caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes, and certain beauty products and medicines?  Why does she read, talk and pray so much about the little person inside of her?  Why does she rearrange her schedule to make doctor visits?  Why does she willingly go on in a process that is changing her so much in mind, body and emotions?  She does it for her baby.  She's never seen this person!  Many women don't even have the benefit of an ultrasound and never once even see an image of their children until their born.  Consider how amazing it is that all of this change - a transformation really - is counted worthwhile for the sake of someone who is unseen.  A mother can accept that there is life in her without seeing the little one because the signs of life are clear.  

Disciples, we are going through a thorough transformation as we follow Jesus.  Our whole selves are being changed by Him and for Him.  Why do we willingly go through with this when we haven't seen Him?  Because we know He's real and alive and near to us.  We are convinced that, though He is unseen by our eyes of flesh, He is the most important person in our lives.  He is worth anything it takes to know Him and to become like Him.  We are being transformed by the Unseen One. 

Do you remember what Jesus said to His apostles after He had been raised from death and knew of their reluctance to believe that He was alive?

"Because you have seen me, you have believed;

blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." 
(John 20:29)

 Also consider what the apostle Peter wrote (with some admiration, I think) about the disciples who had come to follow Jesus without meeting Him in the flesh:

^"Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though

you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled

with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving

the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

(1 Peter 1:8-9)

 Birth is Just the Beginning

Moms are heroic when they carry and deliver their babies.  What a process!  A new life has come into the world, and it's a wonder.  Yet, the sobering truth is that this 40 (or so) week process is just the beginning of a life-long process.  Tragically, some mothers who carry and deliver their babies do not or feel they cannot continue to care for them, yet God has designed the process of motherhood to continue on.  The bringing of a new life into the world is a means to a much bigger end.  May it never be that a mother counts her calling fulfilled once her child is born and the cord is cut!

Isn't it so in the new life of a disciple?  We have been born again through the eternal and imperishable seed of God's truth (1 Peter 1:23), but once we're born again, we aren't left on our own.  No, the Father, Son and Spirit carry faithfully on with us because our God's ultimate purpose for us is not birth but maturity.

Likewise, when we are useful to God in the process of drawing people to Himself and giving them new birth through His word, aren't we also called to be useful to Him in carrying on with this 'newborn' so that they might become 'mature and complete, not lacking anything' (James 1:4).  Paul, who in so many ways was an evangelist/missionary, saw himself commissioned to do far more than just tell people the good news that could save them.  He was more than an announcer; he was a teacher and spiritual parent: 

"He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching

everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present

everyone fully mature in Christ."

(Colossians 1:28)

Moms are amazing.  Their love is a marvel.  Even so, they and their love are just glimpses and whispers of our heavenly Father and His love.  Consider today how wondrous the good news of Jesus really is.  No matter how familiar the truths of God's saving works might be, may they never become anything less than breathtaking and marvelous to us!  Amen.

Children Fighting Dragons

A poetic expression of our hope in honor of the warriors, so weak and young (babes really!) compared to our ancient Enemy, who fight our Enemy with me as a part of New Hope Community Church and everywhere the battles are fought...

See them there, the children fair,

they're gathering for war.

 Armor-clad, they must be mad!

Those babes are bearing swords!

Little ones, what have you done?

You cannot hope to win.

See the beast, the one you meet

 and tremble before him!

Rising tall before you all -

behold the great dragon!
Now you see how foolishly

it is you carry on.

Oh, but wait, what turn this takes!

What gives the dragon pause?

Who else comes, with heaven's drums

to join the children's cause?
Drawing near, the monster's fear
is Jesus, Heaven's King.
Children turn with hearts that burn -
 Oh, listen to them sing!
Confident, they turn to it;
They face their ancient foe.
With what might they each do fight;
they match him blow for blow.

So it is the children win,
one field then another;
Stumbling some, as trials come,
strengthened by each other.
"Carry on, beloved ones!"
their Savior-King calls out.
"As you do I'll be with you,
defeating fear and doubt."
So fight on, you holy ones,
our God is on the move!
No retreat, stand on your feet -
God's with us, we can't lose!

(Re)Starting from Scratch

Question: Have we truly become like children who are "starting from scratch" in understanding God, His universe, others and ourselves, or are we just adding some good insights from Jesus onto our already-framed view of everything?  This is one of the most pressing questions that we face as disciples of Jesus!

When I decided to follow Jesus, I had at least some awareness that I was wrong about things.  At the most basic level, I knew that I had sinned against God and had messed up my relationship with Him.  As I got to know Jesus and His truth more, I became more and more aware of the scope of my error.  By now, I have found that I have been wrong about everything!

It is startling to realize at this stage of my life with Jesus that He is actually intending to completely remake me and my thinking, not just correct some critical errors that He may find.

Some seem to envision (as I certainly did for a long time) that when we come to follow Jesus we are dirty cars that need some cleaning and polishing.  We were dirtied with sin and Jesus had to wash us off with His blood so we'd be clean enough to enter Heaven.  The real truth of the matter is, not only were we dirty cars, we were totaled!  Our engines were corrupted and rewired to run the wrong way, our exhaust systems were blocked and our brakes were shot.  Jesus doesn't just offer carwash, He offers a complete repair!! 

This picture is a bit crude, of course; any comparison of a person to an object has to be to some extent.  Still, it points out a major flaw in the understanding many have of the nature of salvation.  When we reduce salvation to a judicial or legal matter of being let off the hook for bad deeds committed, we leave ourselves open to this error.  However, when we come to understand that salvation is the recreation of the whole self, we're freed to walk in the fullness of life with God and fellowship with His Son.  When we embrace Jesus' offer to actually restore us to the fullness of our humanity, we can become fully human.

So then, if Jesus is right about everything and I'm wrong about most things, it stands to reason that I should learn everything from Jesus that He's willing to teach me.  I can't be content to learn only what I have to know to "make it to heaven".  If I believe Jesus, I'm convinced that I'm being called and invited to belong to the eternal kingdom of God.  I'm going to be a part of this kingdom forever, so I really should become as familiar as I can with how things work here.  Who else but Jesus can teach me that?

Disciple, come to Jesus with the assumption that you're wrong and that you have to start from scratch.  What if all you knew about money is what He and His apostles teach through the Scriptures? Time management, relationships, self, sexuality, food, entertainment - what if we actually started to unlearn and relearn these things based on our Master-Rabbi's viewpoint?  Rebirth and repentance demand it and discipleship provides it.  Here's to starting over!

Love... is Generous (part 2 of 2)

Generosity is, in my estimation, the greatest signal of love that anyone can show.  If love is the pursuit of another's best, generosity is necessary to exercise love. Generosity is the antithesis of self-interest and disdain.  Consider the words of Elder James again: 

"Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?" (James 2:15-16, NIV).

Now let's add the Apostle John's call into our considerations: 

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.  If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?  Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth" (1 John 3:16-18, NIV).

If I am actively pursuing (not just passively wishing for) the best of a person, I must be willing to give something of myself to secure it.  Perhaps it will be a monetary gift, but just as likely it will be something else.  The deepest needs of humans are not met with money.  Of course, money helps people secure some things they need (food, shelter, water, clothing), but people have greater needs than just the basics of biological survival.  This is why the rich have no advantage over the poor when it comes to the call to love.  Generosity is not defined by a person's net worth, but by their eagerness to use whatever he/she has for the benefit of the other (see 2 Corinthians 8:12).  In fact, the Apostle Paul instructed Timothy to command the rich disciples in Ephesus to be "generous and willing to share" (1 Timothy 6:18) as they put their trust in God rather than wealth.  Those who are rich aren't more inclined to be generous than those who are poor; rather, those who are rich in love are more inclined to be generous than those who are poor in love.

The truth is, it is sometimes less generous to write a fat check than to take a few hours to spend time with a lonely person.  It can be less generous to write a check to support a ministry than to volunteer your time and energy to serve in that ministry.  If I choose to give one thing because it's easier or more comfortable than giving another, I must be willing to consider that I am not mature in my love.  I may be showing love, but it needs to grow up to be like the love of Jesus.

How did Jesus illustrate the love of God as He taught His disciples to love their enemies?  He pointed out how generous the Father is to His own enemies: "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:44, NIV).  How did He illustrate to Nicodemus how great God's love was for the world?  He told him that God gave His only Son (see John 3:16).  Paul reminded the Corinthians that Jesus was rich but became poor so that we who were poor might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9), and he reminded the husbands in Ephesus that Jesus loved His church by giving Himself for her (see Ephesians 5:25).

Ultimately, love means giving yourself for someone.  Your words, time, energies, attention, money, possessions and even thoughts (as you offer up prayers) can be generously lavished towards the best of another.  

Love is not focused on the cost to self, but on the benefit to its object. Consider this warning from the Wise Man found in the Proverbs:

"Do not eat the food of a begrudging host, do not crave his delicacies; 

for he is the kind of person who is always thinking about the cost. 

'Eat and drink,' he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
You will vomit up the little you have eaten

and will have wasted your compliments." (Proverbs 23:6-8, NIV)

Giving something is not generous if you're still focused on yourself and what it's costing you - if your heart is not with a person.  Love is centered on the best of the other and is eagerly willing to give what it can.

Love says, "You're worth it."  Love knows the cost but considers the cost to be worth paying if it will bring about what is best for the beloved.

How generous is your love, disciple? 

Love is... (part 1)

According to Jesus, our greatest concerns must be to love YHWH our God and love our neighbors.  These are the most important pursuits and goals we have as human beings.  LOVE.  I think it's safe to say, then, that the most important thing Jesus would teach us as His disciples is how to love.

If we're to learn how to love, we have to learn what love is.  It's unfortunate that something so fundamental to life and to God's universe should need to be learned, but the corruption we've experienced in our minds and hearts renders our understanding of love completely unreliable.  We have a lot to unlearn and then properly learn from our Master.  He is, after all, the universe's expert on love.  In the next several blogs, I plan to consider some of the key elements of love that Jesus teaches us as we become "perfect [in love] as our heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).

What Love is Not
As we learn to fully love, we have to unlearn our false understandings of love which we have inherited from the world.  Here are a few of the misconceptions about love that Jesus would have us reject:

1. Love is the absence of animosity.  In other words, "I don't hate 'em, so I guess I love 'em."  I have personally heard many people say something like, "Well, I don't wish them harm or anything" when pressed about whether they are being loving.  
2. Love is a feeling you have about someone.  Falling in and out of love is a phenomenon that Jesus doesn't acknowledge in His teachings, though the world would tell us that it's a common occurrence - maybe even an inevitability.  In this view of love, it is a mysterious force that just hits us sometimes.  There's not much we can do about that!
3. Love is weakness.  Granted, this is usually articulated in dramatic movie or television scenes in which the villain waxes philosophical about how inferior the hero is because he actually cares about people.  Still, there are more people than we might think who have come to this conclusion (even if they aren't trying to take over the world).  Having been deeply wounded by those they have loved, many decide - whether consciously or not - that they are stronger if they do not let themselves love.
4. Love really only matters in the extremes.  You know the old sibling double-standard, don't you: "No one picks on my brother but me!"  We can treat each other terribly in day-to-day living, but we assure ourselves that when push comes to shove, we'll have each other's backs.  In this view of things, love is like a fire extinguisher: we're content to know it's there in case of emergency.
5. Love is for those who love back.  Reciprocated love is the easiest love of all.  Too many times we feel permission from the world to stop loving someone who has failed to love us.  Another's behavior can be the basis for our own decision to love him/her according to this view of love.
6. Love is just a physiological reaction to external stimuli facilitated by chemicals released...  For the materialists out there, love is just a scientifically explainable sensation or feeling which we have developed in our evolutionary journey.  It is a necessity for the protection and propagation of our specie. [ The materialistic point of view is contrary to Jesus' truth in so many ways, it's hard to know where to even begin in tackling this false view.  I guess I'd start here: "God is love" (1 John 4:8).  God is not explainable by science or evolutionary processes.  Love is so much more than this!]

What Love Really Is

Jesus shows us, in His life and teachings, that love is bigger and more beautiful than we could ever imagine or understand on our own.  Love is real and concrete, yet it is also mysterious and more complicated than the materialist's test tubes can quantify.  Here are some truths about love that Jesus would have us embrace in our process of maturing to become like Him as citizens making their home in His kingdom:

1. Love is the selfless pursuit of another's best.  Love has to act when it can act to accomplish what is best for its object.  Even when it necessitates suffering for self, love will move to bring benefit and blessing to another.  The focus of love is on someone outside of myself.
2. Love is rooted in the heart.  The apostle Peter wrote that disciples of Jesus should "love each other deeply from the heart" (1 Peter 1:22).  If the love we show does not spring from the heart, then it is hypocrisy and is unacceptable to God.  Why?  If you do not truly love someone (i.e. truly desire that she have what is best for her), then you will act in a way that appears loving when you actually have a selfish motive.  That selfishness pollutes the action and renders it unloving.  You've actually acted for your own best rather than the other person's best (see Matthew 6:1-18 for Jesus' commentary on such hypocrisy).  You won't pursue another's best if you don't really want it for them.
3. Love has to act.  "God so loved the world that He gave His only unique Son" (John 3:16).  God's love has always expressed itself in relationship.  So must ours.  As James, half-brother of Jesus and leader of the first church, wrote, what good is it to wish someone well if you do nothing to provide for their wellness (James 2:15-16)?  Pursuing someone's best is active.  When's the last time you saw police in hot pursuit as they sat idly by the roadside just wanting to catch the bad guy?
4. Love can be one-sided.  Love that isn't reciprocated is an especially beautiful love in Jesus' kingdom.  Notice that He doesn't really seem all that impressed with those who only love the ones who love them back:  "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?" (Matthew 5:46).  He praises the love that extends even to enemies and that leads us to pray for our persecutors. That is God's kind of love.  Imagine (if you dare!) what this universe would be like if God only acted for the benefit of those who always acted for His benefit.  To tell the truth, I don't think such a universe is imaginable because we have only ever known the reality of the God who shows kindness even to His enemies (Matthew 5:45).
5. Love is strength.  The ability to love as Jesus is teaching us to love is anything but weakness.  The fact of the matter is, it is beyond our own strength!  We can love this way, but only as we are filled with the power and wisdom of God.  Is it weak to say no to myself so that I can act for someone else's good?  Is it weak to be cursed and offer a blessing instead?  I say it's the greatest strength!  It's no difficult thing to lash out; it is a great power that moves us to be dignified and noble in the face of cruelty, fighting for the good of even our enemies.  This kind of love is rare precisely because it requires so much strength.
6. Love in all things.  Because love acts out of a genuine desire for another's best, it does not wait to show itself in the big things.  It is expressing itself constantly in the seemingly small things (saying hello, putting the grocery cart in the cart return space, paying attention to people) because its attention is on the other.  We notice the little things people do (especially the little things they do that bother us!), so love acts in such a way that others will know they are valued and cared for even in the little things.  Of course, love is ready in the clutch moments (like the Son of God suffering and dying on a tree) because it has trained to focus on others in everything else.

There is so much to learn about love and loving!  I'm so grateful that we have the absolute best Teacher there is and that He is willing to teach us.  Here's to learning the whats and whys and hows together!  Amen.

[up next: Love is... Generous]