Heart Matters: Love

Showing posts with label Love. Show all posts

Monday, May 18, 2015

6 Ways God Shows His Love

How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. (Psalm 36:7)

How profoundly does God love you? Consider these things.

He created you – I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14

Your existence, your life, is not an accident. You were specifically planned for and created by God. He designed everything about you from you physical appearance to your personality type, to be just the way he wanted you to be. You are God’s masterpiece.

He created you in his image – So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

Nothing else in all the creation can lay claim to being “like” God or in his image. Not trees or rocks or birds or any other animal. Only people, like you. He made you in his image, in his likeness, so that you can have a personal relationship with him.

He died for you – But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Just like everyone else on the planet, from infancy you joined in what has been called, the Great Cosmic Rebellion. You have again and again turned your back on God, rejected his rightful rule over you and chose to follow your own sinful choices. Knowing that you would do so, God came to earth, took on humanity and died in your place. He did that so you could be delivered from sin, given life and set free to be in a relationship with him.

He gifted you – Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 1 Corinthians 12:7 Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. 1 Corinthians 14:26

If you are a believer in Jesus, then you have been given gifts of the Holy Spirit. It may gifts of service or mercy or administration or preaching/teaching or knowledge or faith or evangelism or something else. That is, you have a God-given special enabling chosen expressly for you by God so that you can join him in his work of building the church. Think about that for a minute. Don’t take it for granted. The King of Kings of all the universe has especially given you a Holy Spirit powered gift so that you can use that gift alongside him in the work he is doing of building the church – i.e. making disciples. What a privilege and honor that is!

He empowers you – But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

This is a broken world filled with difficulties and problems, many of which are too much for us. We are broken people who cannot, through our own power, overcome the difficulties and problems that face us. But, we can be confident that, if we are a believer in Jesus, he will graciously give us all the power we need to face whatever comes our way.

He meets all your needs – And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

Whatever needs you have, relationship needs, physical needs, financial needs, spiritual needs, whatever your needs may be, God promises to take care of them for you. It may not be when you want or the way you want. But your needs will be taken care of the way that is best, best for his glory and best for your well-being, in his time and in his way.

Take a few minutes to really ponder these truths. Think deeply about them. The most powerful and amazing Being in all the universe –

· Created you

· Made you like himself so that you could have a relationship with him

· Died for you when you were lost in sin, making a way for you to have eternal life

· Gifted you so you could join him in his work

· Empowered you so that you can face any and every difficulty that life throws at you, and

· Promised to take care of all your needs

Can you see, even a little, how great is God’s love for you? It’s a pretty amazing thing. Let it sink in, let it saturate your soul and your heart. Then let it move you to love him in return, to honor him and worship him and serve him. That’s what life is all about.

What do you think? I'd love to read your comments.

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Friday, May 8, 2015

Jesus, The Leper and The Touch of Love

What’s the one thing you want more than anything else? Fame? Fortune? A great tennis backhand? For most people, what they want more than anything else is to feel loved and wanted.

It is something that I longed for all of my life. But for most of my life the longing was never totally fulfilled. Then one day I read a story about Jesus that caused everything to change for me. It was a story that I had read many times before, but this time something about it penetrated deep into my heart and soul in a way it never had before. Which story? The story of Jesus cleansing the leper in Mark chapter 1.

And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean (Mark 1:40-42).

That time that I read this story I was at one of the lowest points of my life. I was feeling acutely aware of my sin, aware of how I had let down people who loved me and depended on me, aware of how far short I’d fallen from the life of righteousness that God requires and deserves from me. I remember feeling like I’d been soaked in filth, like I was covered with open oozing sores.

Then I read that story.

Leprosy was a terrible, incurable disease. Having it made someone unclean and the law forbid him from contact with other people. Lepers were not allowed to live in towns. They had to live in camps outside the city. If for any reason a leper had to come into town he was required to shout “Unclean! Unclean!” to warn others to stay away. What do you think that did to someone’s self-image?

It was a terrible existence. No one was more unloved and unwanted than were lepers. Imagine going through your life like that. No one loves you, no one wants you. And if ever you happened to come close to someone they would recoil at even the thought of accidentally brushing up against you. Horrible.

That’s how I felt. Not physically. But emotionally and spiritually, I felt a leper. I felt unclean and untouchable.

Then I read this passage. Jesus wasn’t repelled by this man’s leprosy. He wasn’t disgusted. He didn’t turn away from him, as I felt people did with me.

Then I noticed, as if for the first time, what Jesus did. He moved toward the man and he touched him.

Jesus wasn't compelled to touch him in order to heal him. Though he did so many times, Jesus didn’t have to touch people to heal them. All he had to do was say a word and the man would have been cleansed.

Jesus could have said, “Okay, now you just keep your distance over there while I clean you up first.” Jesus could have backpedaled away from him while saying, “be clean” and the man would have been cleansed. But, that’s not what Jesus did. Jesus knew it had been a long time since anyone had come near this man or touched him. Jesus wasn't just interested in healing the man, he wanted to love him.

So the first thing Jesus did was he moved toward him and touched him. Even before he healed him, he touched him.

The moment I read those words something popped open in my heart. I saw that I was the leper. I was covered with oozing sores of sin that caused people to turn away from me. But that didn’t matter to Jesus. He was saying to me, “I am not repelled by you. I love you and I accept you just as you are. You don’t have to change anything for me. I come to you. I embrace you. I love you.”

Jesus loved me just as I was, sin and all. He wanted me. That’s grace. That’s the gospel.

Of course, he didn’t leave me the way I was. Just as Jesus didn’t leave the leper in his leprosy but made him well, Jesus has been making me well ever since. But I have never again, since that day, ever felt like there was no one who loved me and accepted me. I know that whatever else happens, Jesus does.

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Thursday, April 16, 2015

Loving Others - How It Works

It’s pretty clear that God wants me to love him and others (Matthew 22:36-40). It’s also pretty clear that I’m not very good at it. I’ve written recently about what a challenge it is for me to love others. (I haven’t even touched on the subject of loving God yet, that’s just too overwhelming at the moment).

I can’t love others. Oh, I do often have affectionate feelings for people. And, I can do nice, even loving, things for others. But, really love? Love like the Bible says to love? Love the 1 Corinthians 13 way of loving? I can’t. Even thinking about it leaves me overwhelmed, frustrated and feeling hopeless.

(See http://heartmattersbms.blogspot.com/2015/03/let-love-be-genuine-romans-129.html)

But the situation is not, in fact, hopeless. There is a solution. Embrace my inability to love, reach out to God, who can love others through me, and let him do so.

(See http://heartmattersbms.blogspot.com/2015/04/i-read-quote-recently-from.html)

It Sounds Simple. But…

I can’t! He can! So, let him! It sounds so simple, so easy. But, what does that really mean, to let Him? Does it mean to just “Let go and let God?” And, what does that mean, really? Let go and Let God.

Does that mean I somehow turn into a mindless robot who is manipulated and directed by God, like a kid pushing the buttons on a video game? Or, does it mean that we simply kick back and observe God do something, like sitting in a theater watching a play? How does that work?

I don’t think letting God do through me the things I am unable to do myself means either of those things.

Moses’ Formula When Faced With Overcoming Obstacles

In Deuteronomy Moses addressed the first post-Exodus generation of Israel. These are the children of the adults who left Egypt. Their parents are all dead. These are the adults who will go into, capture and settle the Promised Land.

In preparing them for the task ahead Moses warns them that living in the land are “seven nations more numerous and mightier” that they are. These nations were not going to just hand over their land to Israel. This was a problem. God told them to go take the land. They couldn't do it. They weren't able. What could the Israelites do? How could they defeat these enemies that are bigger and stronger?

Moses says of these seven nations, these obstacles to Israel doing what God told them to them to do, “when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them…” (Deut. 7:1-2).

Whoa! That’s huge. Did you see what Moses said there?

When it comes to defeating these nations it’s not either/or. It’s not either God or the Israelites. It’s both/and. God is going to give the nations over – God is going to do for the Israelites what they cannot do for themselves – give over to defeat seven nations each one bigger and stronger than they. It is God who will do it.

But, the Israelites also have to fight, “when you defeat them.” The Israelites are going to have to go into combat and fight these nations to the death. But, because God is giving over the nations, Israel will win.

Israel can’t. God can. So, they let him.

They will do what seems impossible. They will succeed when they go into the fight by trusting in God for the outcome. And, that’s exactly the same way, and the only way, that I can love people.

On my own it’s overwhelming, frustrating and hopeless. it's impossible. I can’t. Just trying harder doesn’t work. That will always fail. I can only love people by trusting God to do in me and through me what I cannot do myself. But God doesn’t do it while I just let go and watch. He does it while I am actively loving them.

The New Birth Empowers Love

In his first epistle John wrote that loving others is a sign that we have passed from death to life (1 John 3:14). In other words, it is when we are born again that God joins with our hearts and wills to enable and equip us to love others.

John Piper wrote, “The birth of the new living, loving heart is the act of the Holy Spirit connecting our dead, selfish hearts with God’s so that his life becomes our life and his love becomes our love.”

That’s when I love others, when I connect to the realty of my new life in Christ and the Spirit dwelling within me begins to change my heart and my will to do what I could never do on my own.

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Saturday, April 4, 2015

I Can't! He Can! So, Let Him!

I read a quote recently from Tullian Tchividjian, “Believing that simply telling sinners to ‘stop it’ … carries the power to exact lasting change is silly and unrealistic.” He’s right, of course. It’s true, people can’t just stop doing wrong things.

And, it is also true that it is silly and unrealistic to tell sinners to “just do it” when it comes to the good things God requires. I can no more, in any long-term sense, do what is right on my own than I can not do things that are wrong.

Moral Inability

I think about this a lot, about moral inability. I really resonate with what Paul wrote in Romans 7:15, 18 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

I’ve been particularly thinking about moral inability in regards to things I wrote a couple of weeks ago about love. Jesus said, “Love God and love others.” It’s the sum of all God’s Law. In fact, Jesus said, the One Thing, that will show others that you belong to him is the way you love one another. Elsewhere, in Romans, Paul wrote that the One Thing, the only thing, we ought to owe others is love (Romans 13:8 – 10).

I read what Jesus and Paul said ought to be the One Thing, the most important thing, that I do with my life and I think “But, I can’t!” And, I’m right. I can’t. That’s why I need the gospel.

The Gospel

The gospel is not just that Jesus died for my sins and has given me salvation. The gospel says that apart from the power of Jesus dwelling in me I can’t live a moral life. I no more have the power to do what is right, or not do what is wrong, than I have the power to save myself from my sins.

In another place Tchividjian related Eugene Peterson’s observation about Augustine, Pelagius and Christian practice.

“Eugene Peterson draws a contrast between Augustine and Pelagius, two fourth-century theological opponents. Pelagius was urbane, courteous, convincing, and liked by everyone. Augustine squandered away his youth in immorality, had a strange relationship with his mother, and made many enemies. Yet Augustine started from God’s grace and got it right, whereas Pelagius started from human effort and got it wrong. Augustine passionately pursued God; Pelagius methodically worked to please God. Peterson goes on to say that Christians tend to be Augustinian in theory but Pelagian in practice. They work obsessively to please other people and even God.”

http://www.pastortullian.com/2015/03/25/march-madness-and-the-mathematics-of-grace-2/

I add that Christians tend to be Augustinian when we think about salvation – which we know is by grace alone through faith alone. But, we tend to be Pelagian about the Christian life. We think we get better by trying harder. We try harder to stop doing wrong things. We try harder to do right things. We live as though the way to love God and love others is to just work at. Buckle down. Give it more effort.

I Can’t! But He Can!

But I’ve tried. I really have. For years. And, I finally came to the conclusion, I can’t.

A number of years ago I a heard a pastor say that the whole teaching of the Bible can be summarized by “I can’t. God can. So let him.” So simple. So profound. It reminds me of another favorite passage:

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly in weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me… For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

It is only when I admit that I am weak, it is only when I admit that I can’t, I can’t love God and I can’t love others, at least not like I ought, and embrace Jesus in the midst of that weakness, that his grace then makes me able to love.

If I depend on my own ability to love I fail every time. When I admit I can’t and flee to Jesus, and trust in him, trust in his grace, then and only then, do I begin to authentically love.

I can’t. He can. So, let him. That’s the gospel, and that’s what I need.

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Thursday, March 19, 2015

Let Love Be Genuine - Romans 12:9

In our families, in our churches, in the world, each of us has a job to do, which is unique to us. To do that job God has given each of us a supply of time, talents, gifts, and energy. There are many jobs. Paul wrote that there are varieties of gifts, varieties of service and varieties of activities. Each has been given “for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7). All should be practiced as each is able. None of us will be exactly like another in what we do. But there is One Thing, one most important thing, which everyone must practice, which everyone must do. That One Thing is Love.

In my last post I showed that Love is the most important thing for the Christian, for every Christian. Jesus said that love for God and love for others was the sum of all the commandments (Matthew 22:36-40). He also said that the One Thing that shows that a person is his disciple is that he loves others (John 13:34-35). Paul wrote that without love we are nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). And, when Paul went from theology to practical application for Christian living he began, characteristically, with love (Romans 12:9). In this post I begin to explore how that kind of love ought to work out in our relationships with others.

As many have pointed out, love may be the most over used word in language. We love our favorite food, love our music, and love the weather, sometimes. Used like this love connotes “things that appeal to my personal tastes.”

But, we also love our family, love our friends and love our country. Used this way love means something different. This is the kind of love that, while it certainly involves our preferences, also moves us to work, even sacrifice, for the good of others.

What is it that Paul means when he says that followers of Jesus must love one another?

Surprisingly, he never defines love. Rather, he describes it. He lists things that love is and in that way gives a picture of what love in action looks like. The first thing that Paul says about love in Romans 12:9 is that it must be genuine.

The Greek word that is translated here as genuine comes from the same word that gives us the English word hypocritical. It’s a word that comes from the theater. In Paul’s time actors used masks to show their character’s emotional state. If the script called for a character to be happy, the actor put on a happy mask. If the character was supposed to be sad the actor put on a sad mask. To be hypocritical was to wear a mask and play a part.

Love, according to Paul, must not wear a mask. Love must not be a part we play. Love must not be hypocritical. Love must be real. He is saying, “Christian, do not act as though you love one another. Do not pretend to love one another. Really love!”

Some translators use the word sincere here rather than genuine. Love must be sincere. Sincere comes from a Latin phrase, sine cera, which means without wax. In ancient times a common trick by less than scrupulous merchants to hide cracks in pottery was to fill the cracks with wax. They would next paint over the now disguised crack and then sell the piece as if it was whole and unbroken. But, it was a fake. To counter this practice, honest merchants often stamped their good pots sine cera – without wax, not a fake. It was the genuine article.

Our love for one another must be sine cera, not fake. It must be the real deal.

So, what is genuine love? What does it look like? Perhaps the best place to go to understand genuine love is 1 Corinthians 13, the famous love chapter. In that chapter Paul makes 15 statements about love. James Montgomery Boice, the former pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, in one his commentaries, helpfully listed and explained each one.

1. Love is patient. People are not easy to love. Boice wrote that “people are difficult, exasperating and slow.” Love waits, love endures, love seeks to understand.

2. Love is kind. Scottish theologian Ian Maclaren said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” Boice wrote “The world is filled with hurting, suffering people. Love knows this and does what it can to help.”

3. Love does not envy. Following the first two positives there are eight negatives. The first of the things that love is not, or does not, is envy. Love is happy for others when they get good things. “This is because love knows God and is content with the life God has given. Only a believer can be truly happy when others are preferred before himself.”

4. Love does not boast. Boice wrote, “The world is filled with boasters, people who in one way or another are calling attention to who they are, how important they are, and how much they have achieved. Love does not do this.” He quotes Ronald Reagan who said, “There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

5. Love is not proud. Humility is the contrary of pride. “Love does not have inflated ideas of itself. Love is gracious.” Love puts others first.

6. Love is not rude. Boice wrote, “The opposite of rudeness is courtesy, and love has good manners.” Good manners show that we are thoughtful of and care about others. A lack of manners reveals self-centeredness. Love treats others well, because …

7. Love is not self-seeking. “The world looks at somethings and asks, ‘What’s in it for me?’” Love doesn’t do that because “love thinks [first] of the one it loves.” Boice remarked, “Jesus did not seek his own advantage when he came to earth to save us. Rather, he ‘made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant…he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross’ (Philippians 2:7-8).”

8. Love is not easily angered. Nothing is as damaging to relationships, homes, communities and churches as anger. Boice wrote, “Love does not have a short fuse. It is not irritable, not easily provoked. It is not touchy. Love is patient and kind.”

9. Love keeps no record of wrongs. “Some people have a knack for bringing up mistakes we have made and wounds we have inflicted even decades afterwards.” Not so love. “Love forgets these wrongs….It is not resentful. It is not vindictive.”

10. Love does not delight in evil. God is good and God loves what is good. So should his disciples. In Romans 12:9 the next thing that Paul said about love, after saying that it must be genuine, is that it “hates what is evil but clings to what is good.” Boice wrote, “love does not find trash intriguing….dishonest schemes do not please it. Love hates wickedness.”

11. Love rejoices in the truth. This statement is connected to the previous one about love not delighting in evil. It shows that the evil Paul was thinking of is mainly the evil that lies and deceives. “Love loves truth, above all the truth that is God’s.”

12. Love always protects. Now Paul comes to four things that love always does. First, it always protects other people, especially those that need protecting the most. “It sides with the weak. It rallies around the one who has been oppressed, attacked, abused, hurt, slandered or otherwise made a victim.”

13. Love always trusts. Boice wrote that while love is not stupid or gullible, it does “always think the best.” Love does not default to being suspicious of others, questioning their motives and assuming the worst. Rather, love encourages and says “I believe in you.”

14. Love always hopes. “Love does not stop loving because it is not loved in return.” Love keeps on looking for the best, love keeps on forgiving. “Love forgives not once or even seven times, but seventy times seven. Love is not even counting.”

15. Love always perseveres. Boice wrote, “Love never gives up. It is unconquerable, indomitable. Love can outlast hate and evil and indifference. Love can outlast anything.” Boice quoted his predecessor at Tenth Presbyterian, Donald Grey Barnhouse: “It is…the one thing that stands after all else has fallen.”

That’s what sincere, genuine love is. That’s what is to mark our relations with one another. How do you feel after reading that list? Energized and excited to go out there and show the world your commitment to Jesus by the way you love others? Or, do you feel overwhelmed and discouraged because it seems daunting to even think about putting that kind of love into practice? I usually feel more like the latter than the former.

“I can’t do that,” I think. “I can’t love others like that.” And the truth is, I can’t. And neither can you. Which, of course, is part of Paul’s point. If we are a disciple of Jesus, we must do these things, but we can’t do these things. Which is why he began this chapter, “In view of God’s mercies…”

In my next post I’ll consider how God’s mercies make us able to love others in ways we otherwise would never be able to do.

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Friday, March 13, 2015

The Christian's Most Important Thing

Most successful people and organizations have a laser-like focus on accomplishing their most important thing. Stephen Covey has famously said, “The main thing is to keep the main the main thing.” In his book The One Thing, Gary Keller wrote, “Big success comes when we do a few things well.”

For Christians to be “successful,” is there One Thing that ought to be our object of a laser-like focus? Out of all the things we could do, is there One Thing that we must do? Is there One Thing that if we fail to do it, the rest doesn’t really matter? I think there is One Thing and that One Thing is love.

I’ve never counted for myself, but I’ve read many times that there are 613 commandments in the Old Testament. When Jesus was asked which one of these 613 was the greatest, the most important, commandment, he replied: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and the first commandment.” But he didn’t stop there. He continued, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love God. Love others. Then Jesus said something really profound. He said, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40).

Do you see what makes that statement so profound? If all the Law and the Prophets, in other words, all the other 611 Old Testament commandments depend on love for God and love for others then that means that all the other commandments must be built on a foundation of love. Obedience to the other commandments must be shaped by love. Every thought, every action, done out of obedience to God’s commandments must first of all manifest love. Or to put it another way, without love, obedience falls short of God’s purposes, every time. That sounds a lot like what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13. He said that obedience without love gains nothing and is nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

Henry Drummond, a 19^th Century evangelist from Scotland, wrote an essay called “The Greatest Thing in the World” in which he considered the Ten Commandments informed by love:

Take any of the commandments. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” If a man love God, you will not have to tell him that. Love is the fulfilling of that law. “Take not his name in vain.” Would he ever dream of taking his name in vain if he loved him? “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” Would he not be too glad to have one day in seven to dedicate more exclusively to the object of his affection? Love would fulfill all these laws regarding God. And so, if he loved man, you would never think of telling him to honor his father and mother. He could not do anything else. It would be preposterous to tell him not to kill. You could only insult him if you suggested that he should not steal—how could he steal from those he loved? It would be superfluous to beg him not to bear false witness against his neighbor. If he loved him, it would be the last thing he would do. And you would never dream of urging him not to covet what his neighbor had. He would rather they possessed it than himself. In this way, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” It is the rule for fulfilling all rules, the new commandment for keeping all the old commandments, Christ’s one secret to the Christian life.” (Henry Drummond, The Greatest Thing in the World, and other selected essays, ed. William R. Webb, Kansas City, MO.; Halmark Editions, 1967, pp 10 – 11.)

It is also striking that Jesus elevates love as the One Thing that marks people as disciples. How will others know that we are his disciple? It is not great preaching. It is not correct doctrine. It is not building large congregations. It is not dynamic evangelism. It is not doing good and helping others. It is not even, what I would have guessed, right worship. All these things are good and even necessary, but the One Thing that shows that a person is a disciple, that he or she belongs to Jesus, is love. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

It is no surprise then that when Paul came in his letter to the Romans to write about the characteristics of an authentic Christian life he started with love.

The first 11 chapters of Romans are about doctrine. Paul carefully lays out what the Christian ought to believe. God exists, things in the world are very wrong and people are under his wrath (Chapters 1 – 2). All have sinned and are separated from God (Chapter 3). Being made right with God is a matter of faith (Chapter 4). While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Chapter 5). Though being born dead in Adam, we have been made alive in Christ (Chapters 6 – 7). There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Chapter 8). God calls all kinds of people to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, and is making one body of them all (Chapters 9 – 11).

Beginning with Chapter 12 Paul writes about the “so what?” If all that doctrine is true, then, so what? What every-day, where-life-really-happens, difference should it make in our lives? Verses 9 – 21 in Chapter 12 deal with very practical characteristics in our relations with others that must mark the life of a believer. You can probably guess which characteristic heads the list. Love!

Love must be genuine. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor (Rom. 12:9-10).

Genuine love, informed by turning from evil and holding onto good, shown in family-like affection, that honors others above yourself – this is the first characteristic. When it comes to our relationships with others, it’s our One Thing. It’s the Christian’s most important thing.

In my next post I’ll explore love put into action in the Christian community.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

A Year of Living Joyfully

     As I've previously shared on this blog, I suffer from sadness. For as long as I can remember a deep and profound sadness has doggedly followed me. I've never known if it was because I was simply born with a melancholy personality or if what I have is actual clinical depression. I've tried all kinds of things over the years to treat my sadness from changing my diet to increasing how much exercise I get to various therapies with different counselors to medications. Though many of these things have helped some, the sadness always returns.

     This year for Christmas my older daughter and her family gave me a gift that just might make 2013 a different experience for me. She gave me "A Year of Living Joyfully."

     Joy is an antidote for sadness. Joseph Campbell said that joy will burn out pain and that includes the pain of depression. Of course I've known that for sometime. But how does one remain joyful when all you feel is sad? I've never known. Charles Kuralt said that joy in our lives is often hard to find and look hard for it. I've never known where to look. My daughter has given me a very practical way to not only look for Joy but to find it.

     How did she do it? She took a 2013 calendar and went throughout the year scheduling Bible verses to read and little projects to do that will point me toward Joy. She also encouraged me to take time each day to find something that gives me Joy and record it in the calendar like a journal. I think these are great ideas. In fact, I think that these ideas are so great I've decided to write about them here on this blog. I hope that you will you join me here and follow along for A Year of Living Joyfully?

     Even though the project doesn't officially begin until January 1, I can't help myself from jumping the gun and starting early. So what's one thing that gives me Joy today?

     Having a daughter that loves me enough to give me A Year of Living Joyfully.

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