A friendly reminder…

As I stepped onto the subway train there wasn’t a visible seat but if the two men sitting there had moved slightly further apart there was room for one more. I didn’t bother asking them to move. I was only going two stops and the cool air in the subway car was such a relief that standing wasn’t an issue. A gentleman standing near me said “do you want a seat?”

“No, you can take it.”

“I wasn’t going to sit. I was going to fight for you to have a seat.”

“Oh, thank you so much but I am fine standing.”

What followed was a conversation that brighten my day. He spoke of how things have changed since he was a kid, how he wants to make a difference by loving more than hating. People looking on would have thought we were an unlikely pair to be in conversation and that is what I enjoyed about those moments – connecting with a stranger because he is my neighbor.

I decided to share thoughts that were originally posted back in October of 2017. Hope you don’t mind.

I don’t know about you but most mornings when I check my smart phone for the first time or turn on the television to catch the news, I find myself holding my breath as I wonder what the possible headline could be. The world seems to go from one crisis to the next barely catching its breath in between. I don’t want to oversimplify this but I think it always has. We just didn’t know. We live in an age of instant information we have access to more information at a faster pace. We are bombarded. Many feel overwhelmed. Many are overwhelmed.

As a follower of Jesus how do I navigate life in an ever-changing world? I think the answer is found in the question asked by the Pharisees – Which is the greatest commandment?

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The Bible tells us that God is love. 1 Corinthians 13 gives us a definition of love. There is an old song that states “What is the world needs now is love, sweet love.” I believe now more than ever (or maybe it has always been the case) the world needs love. God’s love. The last verse of 1 Corinthians 13 ( The Message) states what I want to strive to do: “Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.” Will you join me?

 

13 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

² If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

^3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

^8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

¹¹ When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

¹² We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

¹³ But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.