LOVE

written in 2006

“There is a direct correlation between the accuracy of our memory and the effectiveness of our mission. If we are not teaching people how to be saved, it is perhaps because we have forgotten the tragedy of being lost…and if we’re not preaching the cross, it could be that we’ve subconsciously decided that – God forbid – somehow we don’t need it” (Six Hours One Friday, Max Lucado).

Perhaps the reason we as Christians are so lazy and ineffective is the fact that we’ve forgotten where we came from and how we got to where we are today. To deny what has happened in our lives is to live as though nothing has changed. I have lived this ineffective lie for too long now. I’ve waited for perfect opportunities to serve God, but the “perfect” time never comes. He asks us to serve him, and most importantly, to love, to love the people He created. And through this genuine, selfless love that doesn’t love due to a command, but loves out of love’s sake and devotion to pleasing God, comes true happiness and joy, and as a result, people will come to know the Christ who has shown you how to love in this manner. Love, true love, is what we seek, but we won’t find true love until we learn to give it and to accept it ourselves. How pompous it is for us to expect others to accept our love if we refuse it from them. Why should they accept our gift if we refuse to accept the one God would have them give us? Love, true Christ-like love, is what I wish to give. It is they only thing that will make this man happy, and it’s the only thing that makes perfect sense. I love you all, not because God wants me to, but because it brings me joy to imitate my Christ. “A man is never the same after he simultaneously sees his utter despair and Christ’s unbending grace” (Six Hours One Friday, Max Lucado). To stay the same, to not give love unselfishly, is to deny that what Jesus did matters, or for that matter, even happened. If you continue unchanged, have you truly understood the full magnitude of Jesus choosing to stay nailed to the cross? Have you truly understood where this narrow path leads? Examine it, think about it, and devote yourself to figuring out how to love, not because God commands it or because I remind you to, but because you love out of love’s sake, because you want to. This life we choose isn’t easy, neither is selfless love, but work at it, and you’ll be surprised at just how easy it gets and how effective it really is to…simply love.