I was made to LOVE you

When my pastor announced last week that we were starting a new holiday series called, “One Thing” I had no clue what it was going to be about.   The only “one thing” that came to my mind as we enter into the holiday season is Jesus and I was pretty sure we weren’t going to have five different sermons about Jesus’ birth.

So this morning I got up and went to church, excited to hear first talk of the new series and I was not disappointed.  This series actually gave me my idea as well for what my challenge is going to be for the month!  I don’t exactly know what each lesson is going to be about but I hope I can work it in. 

My challenge is to take the sermon and really live it out....not that I don’t try to take every sermon to heart but today I really felt convicted that I wasn’t fully living out today’s lesson on love.  Our lesson was titled “The Question Jesus Couldn’t Answer” and was on Mark 12 where a teacher of the law wanted to trick Jesus by asking him what the greatest commandment was.  Jesus’ response was, “The most important one is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength.  The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no other commandment greater than these.”  

The main point of his lesson was to have, “love for God and others” which is obvious from this verse but his bullet points are what challenged me.  The first point was that “love is our purpose” which reminds me of the lyrics,

“Give me your eyes for just one second, give me your eyes so

I can see everything that I keep missing.  Give me your love for

humanity.  Give me your arms for the broken-hearted.  The ones

that are far beyond my reach.  Give me your heart for for the

ones forgotten.  Give me your eyes so I can see.”

God calls us to help the widows and orphans of this world and we do this though love.  God has wired us in so many different ways and all we’re called to do is use what we have to love others, knowing full well that the reason we go out and love is because of 1 John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us”.

The second point was to “make love our response”.  How often can I say that my first response in every situation is to love?  I can think of countless examples I have with my students.  I have some who are on a streak with not turning in their homework and every day that they “can’t find it but know they did it” or “didn’t have time because of this and that”, I want to scream!  I don’t assign homework because they love it!  And I especially don’t assign it because it’s the highlight of my week to grade but I assign it because I know they need the practice.  I have been getting so frustrated with them and while I hide my frustration pretty well, I know I let it slip from time to time.  I have three weeks before Christmas break and my hope is that I can respond with love rather then frustration.  I should probably practice that on the road as well.  I mean, I can show love and be patient with the cars driving 55 mph in the fast lane right?

The third point and the point that brought me to this post was that “love is our reputation”.  The pastor gave us a challenge this week to sit and reflect on or to ask a friend to tell you what we are known for.  If I did, would people use the words love or compassion?  I know my reputation in my kickball league is “goody goody” but do they see more than that?  

This week, month and for the rest of my life, I want people to see that I truly and deeply love them.  Yes, it will be difficult since right at this moment I can think of a handful of people on my list that will make this challenging but I am determined!  It is going to take prayer.  It is going to take not gossiping.  It might even mean not scrolling through my Facebook wall.  But not matter how I have to do it, my prayer is that people will start to see a change in my life and it will push them to seek the Lord or challenge them to change their mindset on how they are living our their Christian walk.

At the very end of the message, the pastor had us flip to the infamous verse in 1 Corinthians that, Christian or not, you know!  “Love is patient, love is kind....”.  You can fill in the rest.  I have heard this before but today I am looking at it in a new light.  He told us to take out the word love and replace it with our own name and see how it reads.  “Erica is patient.  Erica is kind.  Erica is not self-seeking....”  When I read it that way, I really could see the areas I needed work in and that’s what I plan to do....work!  So get ready to be loved on!