We’re at the end! (Aren’t those gals cute up there?) I so hope and pray that when I’m precious and saggy like that I still have my best girlfriends by my side. Oh God, help me love to the end. Now, while I can’t say that I’ve done every single one of these every single day, I will say that it has helped renew my focus on relationships. Anyone else out there a do-er? Doing stuff is always my default, relationships rarely are. But this has helped to make people a priority and remember that all our “ministry” and “good works” are nothing if they are not rooted in relationship. As I read this week about a woman who moved from her “successful” life into a selfless and humbling place of serving the poorest of the poor: “He sent me into a world that could care less about my writing ability, my prestigious resume, or my so-called success. The only thing in which they were remotely interested was the answer to one question: Do you really love me?”
Isn’t that the same question everyone around us asking. Really asking? Beneath it all, isn’t that what the world around us wonders. Is there a Savior who really loves? Do you really care? It is overwhelming to think of living from this place of selfless, unconditional, sacrificial love, but it is the only place to experience the living, powerful, life-changing power and presence of God. We love because He first loved us, and when we begin to dig down deep into this love everything changes. Priorities change. Concerns change. Families change. Finances change. The gospel of grace is the gospel of love. A relentless Father seeking His children, a heavenly Lover seeking His Bride, a passionate God seeking His people.
I pray you are completely overwhelmed and enveloped in the love of God this week. That everything you do flows out of a place of love. That all your One Anothers come from a genuine love that the Holy Spirit is working in your heart. This challenge has made me see how far I have to go! But let’s continue to grow together, amen? Thanks so much for doing this with me… And thanks for reading.
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Monday, June 18: Hebrews 10:24: “Spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”
Remember how we spur one another on? By encouragement, and by a few loving sticks, pokes, and irritations. Will you revisit this with me here?
Tuesday, June 19: Romans 15:1-2: Don’t please yourself but please others
Martin Luther King Jr. said about the story of the Good Samaritan: “The first question that the priest … and the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But the Good Samaritan … reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him.”
It’s so basic it seems childish, but simply pausing long enough to think, “How does this affect someone else? What would they want most right now? What would please them? Serve them? Help them?” Then do it.
Wednesday, June 20: Galatians 5:13: “Serve one another.”
We’ll finish here because this sums up all the One Anothers: “Through love serve One Another.” There it is. The whole of the Christian faith. The law and the prophets. We are to use our freedom, the free grace gift of the gospel, to the end that we love and serve one another. That is greatness. That is success.
Thanks for growing alongside me in this adventure of learning to love One Another each day. I pray we continue …