But sometimes I forget. Anybody else?
Because you see, sometimes I act as if life is all about being busy, busy, busy and crossing off every item on my to-do list. Or sometimes I act as if life is all about those I love being comfortable and happy and healthy. Or sometimes I act as if life is all about working hard, doing good, being right, and achieving success. And sometimes, ugh how this pains me, I just plain old act as if life is all about--to quote Miss Piggy--moi! Me, myself, and I. It's called selfishness, and man oh man, is it ever ugly.
But when you boil it all down, God put us here first to love Him--which means fixing our eyes on Him, listening to Him, talking to Him, enjoying Him, trusting Him, savoring Him, praising Him, and glorifying Him. And secondly to love those He has put in our paths and in our world--which means praying for them, honoring them, respecting them, serving them, thanking them, being patient and kind to them, rejoicing with them, weeping with them, and putting them and their needs ahead of our own.
Just in case you're wondering, I'm not making this up. Nope, Jesus made it crystal clear when He responded to the question of what's the most important commandment of all. He answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:29-31)
Gee whiz, we can get ourselves all twisted up into a knotty mess by making things far too complicated, can't we? Yet, this is so simple, so profound, and so absolutely life and world altering--love God, love others. Yes, there's so much wrong with the world right now. And yes, there's so much wrong with our sinful, selfish hearts. And yes, we all have infinite areas where we need to improve and do better. Goodness, I'm at the head of the class when it comes to all the ways and places I need to change and repent and do far, far better.
But how about we just start here? How about we start right here at the very place Jesus said was the most important of all--love God, love people.
And yes, we cannot, cannot, cannot do it on our own. Hello selfishness, pride, envy, laziness... BUT welcome Holy Spirit! Our Counselor, our Convictor, our Guide, our Power, our Enabler, our Strength. We can't do it...but He can. He is God's Spirit put within us, enabling us to love like Jesus loved.
For you see, just as we come to faith all by grace ("For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one can boast." Eph.2:8-9), so too we live, we obey, we thank, we glorify, and we LOVE all by His grace. As Dave Mathis put it in his wonderful little book, Habits of Grace, "It is in this endless sea of His grace that we walk the path of the Christian life and take steps of grace-empowered effort and initiative."
Goodness, I said this was going to be short, so if we want to have a great day, then it's time for me to shut up so we can go find someone with whom to share the endless ocean of God's love. Maybe we can't heal all the divisiveness and ugliness in the world...but we can help someone who needs it. We can forgive someone. We can share with someone. We can speak God's life-giving words to someone. We can pray for someone. We can encourage someone. We can put aside our agenda and spend time loving someone.
Today let's ask God to enable us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and then to empower us to love others with His love. If we can do those two things, we can chalk this up as a mighty good day. No, in fact, this will be a gloriously great day.
Love God, love people. The end. Let's do it! To God be the glory.
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