My church (don’t stop reading just because I mentioned church right off the bat please) just finished an awesome learning series called Love Your Neighbor. Yes, it sounds like the typical “do good to others” type message we hope to hear at church… but it was so much more and I wanted to express how much this message of Love Your Neighbor drives me on a day to day basis. Love God, love people, and love one another. This is how I aim to live every day. It may seem like a lot to process and it certainly can’t be done with a selfish attitude but I have found that it is just as easy to love God and love people as it is to hate and criticize others. Doing good to/for others without expecting anything in return takes guts. It takes patience. It may even sound crazy – but it works. Because when we do for others, it opens doors for conversation, questions, curiosity about “the why.” Why did you do that for me? Why do you care about me? Why did you take time to encourage me? Why would you make that sacrifice for me? These types of questions help me point people to Jesus, which is my mission every day.
More than ever, people need kindness and something good to happen in their lives. This culture and this generation can have a very dim outlook most of the time. It is very easy to sit back and judge or criticize as we watch people struggle every day, blaming them for the situation they have created for themselves. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter to me how they got in that situation, it matters to me how I can help them and open their eyes to something good.
I would wager that we (society) know that we should love our neighbors (people that are around us at any given time), and that we should do good and positive things for our neighbors not expecting anything in return…but it bothers me to see it done so little. And for a long time, the “church” has been the biggest offender of this rule.
My prayer is that my generation and the ones that come up after me will understand the value of love God, love people, love one another more than ever before. That may be far-fetched by the naked eye…but I am making it my mission to show others it can be done…and throw out all the excuses of why it can’t be done.
Love God::Love People::Love Others
All the best…K.
For the “Love Your Neighbor” message from Revive Church follow the link below.
http://www.reviveyourworld.com/media.php?pageID=5&itemID=28&
http://www.reviveyourworld.com
katiemichellerockwell 