LOVE STARTS HERE

LOVE STARTS HERE


Jesus just wouldn’t stop telling stories and showing people how to love each other. The Scriptures are just full of talk about loving our spouses and families and enemies and our neighbors. Jesus gave some serious details about living in this way of love in the Sermon on the Mount. There are plenty of things we can debate about within Christianity: how the Holy Spirit works and the five points of Calvinism and how a church should be organized…but one thing is undeniable. We are made to love.
I have met people throughout the United States who are desperate to see the Christian Church in America become known for love. We want a new reputation, an identity that the world cannot refute. We want to be known for our love. It’s really a very Biblical yearning.
I have friends that dream of living in third world countries and friends that spend their time raising awareness about issues of global injustice. Many have been moved by what has happened in our own country with hurricanes and are desperate to help in some way, shape or form. I believe that these are worthwhile causes that Jesus cares about deeply.
I also believe that when Jesus spoke of love He meant that we are to start right here, right now. It’s easy to care about the village in Africa but not love your neighbor whose tree drops branches on your house. It’s easy to buy free trade coffee but not take the time to invite your lonely and socially awkward co-worker out to lunch.
What if we let God transform us into the kinds of people who love the people we bump into every day? What if we start there? What if instead of getting worked up over evangelism techniques and tracks we simply grappled with loving our neighbors? What if God can empower us and enable us to truly care about them? He can.
I propose that each of us begins to pray for our neighbors and co-workers, not as a scheme or marketing technique, but out of love. Pray that they would be safe. Pray that they would find peace. Pray that addictions would be overcome and marriages strengthened. Pray that teenagers would be okay.
Pray that God would teach us how to love them. Pray that God would enable us to care. Pray that God would be our fuel to love them in real and practical ways. Pray that God would open doors to love in practical ways like babysitting and looking after dogs and mowing lawns and being there when her husband leaves her.
Then, at some point, when we really do care, we may be led to ask these people how we can better pray for them. It wouldn’t be fake or forced. It would be real. We would be asking in love.
We are a church who believes in the power of prayer and the power of love. May God continue to transform us into the kinds of people who truly do love our neighbors. May the world be forever changed. May His Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.