This picture was taken in beautiful Sedona, AZ. It was a lovely, peaceful trip and the mountains were just gorgeous! I include it not for the scenery but for the shirt I’m wearing. I have one in black also. They are two of my favorite t-shirts. My Pastor had these shirts made for our church.
Love God. Love People.
It’s so simple yet so impactful. I don’t think anything sums up our job description as a Christian any better than those four words. What I’ve learned is that If I’m not loving God well, then I can’t love other people well. I simply don’t have the power within and of myself to love others like God commands. I don’t know about you, but people frustrate and annoy me on a daily basis. Oftentimes, they don’t act like I think they should or agree with me when I think they should. People are just difficult and I include myself in that. Please tell me you relate and I’m not the only one that needs helping loving people sometimes. I’ve got to ask God every day to help me see other people like he sees them or I start judging and stop loving. I find I’ve begun to routinely ask myself if I’m loving God well; if I’m loving this person with my thoughts; am I loving with my words; and do my actions show that I’m loving God and others? I hate to admit that I can’t always answer in favor of that job description. In fact, I’m sure those of you that know me can call me out on an occasion when I wasn’t being loving in my thoughts, words or actions. If you’ve known me long enough, I know that you can. I’m human, not without sin, and I will fail. I can never get it right 100% of the time. What I can say is that I know God wants this for me, so I pray for a heart to love. I try hard to Love God and Love People. I think if we truly do that- in that order- we can’t go wrong. The world would change if we would all strive to live up to that. Jesus himself told us that was the most important thing. He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself”. (Matthew 22:37-39)
Who is my neighbor? To me, every other person that I share this planet with is my neighbor. That’s a lot of neighbors to love. Can I love someone I’ve never met? Can I love someone 9000 miles away? You better believe I can. I had a pen pal from Tanzania when I was a child. I wrote to her. I prayed for her. I was kind to her. I took time to learn about her and read her letters. I loved her. You see, I loved someone that I had never met, that didn’t look like me and didn’t have a life that resembled mine much at all. I believe we could all learn something from that childlike love. There are so many loving things that we can do that will affect people we may never know or meet. Can I love someone that I don’t agree with? Yes. Yes, I can. That’s not as easy sometimes; but it’s possible and I think it’s beautiful. Can I love someone that doesn’t love me or even hates me? With God’s help, yes I can.
We are one race- the human race. The human race that God created. He created us all unique yet equal and He loves us equally. I don’t know why some people treat people differently because of the color of their skin but I do know it breaks my heart when I see it. I don’t know why some people can’t love people that look different from them. I can’t even imagine that. For those that have experienced that and are hurting right now, I want to say, I’m sorry and I love you.
#Black Lives Matter
Yes, yes they do. They matter to God and they matter to me.
Today I will do my best to fulfill my job description and love God and love others.
Father, thank you for loving me. I don’t understand the evil and hate in this world. It breaks my heart and I know it breaks yours. Help me to follow your commands and love You and then love others. Help me to better understand daily what it means to love You well and love others well. I pray for healing in our nation Lord. I pray that we would see more love in this world than hate. Help me to do better. Help others to do better. We just can’t do it without You Lord!
Surrender 