Tag: love one another

Choose God

We attended a wedding a few weeks ago. It was a joyous day watching a lovely young faithful couple declare their commitment to each other. Blue skies, warm weather and a crowd of family and friends were there to bless the bride and groom.

One can’t help but reflect on your own life in this situation. I am grateful that God brought Wes into my life. I am thankful that Wes chose me. There is a real honour in someone trusting you with their love and their future. I believe he feels the same way about me. Nice how that works isn’t it?

God chose me. Even before I knew him. Even before I was born he loved me. He loved me so much that he sent his son to die for me. God chose you too. Even before you were born he loved you. He offers his love to anyone who will chose to accept it.

An amazing choice – to receive another’s gift of love. We just need to accept. We can trust God with our love and our future. He is faithful.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Learning to give

When my kids were little, I had an epiphany. There were many moms that I knew who were skeptical of Christmas and over-giving to their children. It is an honest and reasonable concern. Our society is blessed with an abundance of ‘stuff.’ It can feel excessive. Particularly when comparing it to the poverty we see in other parts of the world. Many people I knew were giving gifts of donations to other causes, or even asking others to donate in their child’s name. I didn’t like this and I couldn’t put my finger on the reason why.

We never spent a lot at Christmas. Our financial situation always ensured that we were unable to ‘spoil’ our children. I did, however, get great joy in selecting gifts I thought they would enjoy. I planned ahead to make our small budget go as far as possible. Some years I couldn’t sleep on Christmas eve, I was so excited to see how they would react.

Our children were always excited and happy with their gifts. We shared great joy as a family. It was after one of these mornings that the reason I didn’t like the over reaction to our materialism. We need to learn the joy of receiving before we can learn the joy of giving. If I had not experienced the joy of a perfect gift, then I wouldn’t enjoy the act of giving to my own children. I never felt any guilt in wanting to make my children happy. And I certainly didn’t want them to feel bad because they received something they would enjoy.

Matthew 7: 11 – 12 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you,
for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Family ties

When I was in University, I got a call from my Grandpa one evening. He said, “You have to come over and see these people we have here.” I questioned him as it was already getting late. “No, you need to come. These are relatives. You need to meet them.” He hung up without even saying goodbye. Something he would often forget to do. I got in my car and drove through the dark city, lit up by strings of streetlights, and made my way to their apartment.

It was a nice evening. I left not sure why I needed to know these people. All I knew is that my presence was important to my Grandpa. It wasn’t life changing. But it showed me how my Grandpa valued his kin.

A long time ago, God spoke to His Son. Maybe he said something like, “You need to go meet these people. You need to go see them, so they can understand me and know more about me.” I know, It’s silly to imagine what God and Jesus would have said to each other, as I am sure they communicate far more fully than we can comprehend.

Jesus came down to meet us. To show us our heritage and lineage, to explain our family connections. He did this because God cares about us. He wants us to know we are part of his family and loved by him.

There can be no greater honour than being called to meet and see God, through his own Son. A meeting with the Son of God is indeed life changing.

John 17: 25-26 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Our people

My Grandma told me once how she loved the people from her home community. No matter what they did she loved them. She told me of a neighbour who was a horse thief. Everyone in the area knew it. If your horse went missing, the first stop was always to his farm to see if he had it. Usually he did have the stolen horse. The community folk would go collect their horse and be on their way.

She laughed as she recalled this. Then she paused and looking at me with her beautiful pale blue eyes, she clasped her hands and leaned forward, as though to drive the point home. “You see, they are my people.”

We all need people. We need to love our people and walk with our people.

Have we lost this? Perhaps we lost it before the dreaded virus landed in our world.

Love is not a feeling or an instinct. Love is a job. A job with easy days and tough days. But a job nonetheless.

Together lets love our people.

1 Peter 4: 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers
over a multitude of sins.

Alone. Together.

You’ve likely heard the line, “We are all in this together.” But we aren’t. We’ve been distanced from community. We’ve been isolated and shut down. We are alone. Maybe together we are all alone, but that is just word trickery.

No one I know is doing ok. Everyone is struggling. For different reasons, yes, but we are all experiencing trauma. I used to wonder what it was like for my Grandmother, at home with her kids while the war raged across the channel. It has filled my imagination for years.

While I wouldn’t presume to understand her exact feeling, I do feel closer to her now than ever. All we can do is wait and survive.

What we do need is courage. The courage to sit in the sun. The courage to sing. The courage to make a nice meal. The courage to love. The courage to love people, even if they aren’t loving in return.

Claim the freedom to love.

2 Timothy 1: 7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power,
of love and of self-discipline.

Comedy vs Tragedy

My oldest daughter has a keen interested in literature and books and authors and all things writing. And I love this! She often asks my opinion about authors or their books. We get into the most interesting discussions (for us, not the rest of the family – they hate it).

Last night I was describing the difference between a comedy and tragedy, in their classic usage. As I struggled to described it, I finally came up with a very simple explanation. All kinds of problems and complications happen in life. In a comedy these complications have a humorous spin and culminate in a marriage – they lived happily ever after. When reading or watching a tragedy, complications happen and they have devastating results and then people die. We were laughing at the over simplicity of my explanation.

Life is neither a comedy or a tragedy – it is both. We have moments of devastating events, we have lighter funny complications, we may live happily and we all die in the end.

Maybe we need to accept the end of our life, the inevitability of death, in order to live full productive and meaningful lives? In this way we can make the most of the moments now. We can care more, give more, love more, forgive more…

Luke 12: 25-26 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? 
Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

Turning a page

I am fifty today. I’m half way to one hundred. I always intended to have a big party today to celebrate this great achievement. But, frankly it doesn’t feel any different than any other day and I actually have no interest in celebrating. Why? Oh who knows. These days are so strange that, well, it’s hard to think of celebrating over something so arbitrary as a date!

It has caused me to reflect on my life. I’m shocked at how little I have accomplished. I’m dismayed by the mistakes I have made and the people I’ve hurt. My list of sins is pretty long.

Why do we remember the negative things so clearly?

Maybe it’s because the “good” things we do are often cumulative. We get up every day and slog out the house and provide for our families. We work every moment to teach and help our children to grow and learn. There is nothing glamorous in this. And yet, when taken at a distance it can be truly heroic. The bad stuff tends to happen in capsules, moments of time that we can quickly pull out and remember.

So today, I’m determined to continue to show my husband respect. I will continue to try give my children wise council. I hope to find a way to love my neighbour. And most of all I will remember whom I serve.

Colossians 3: 23-24  Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working
for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

God loves me and you too

Every now and again God gives us an experience, the kind of moment that we hold in our heart and treasure. A glorious sunset, a drive home with tired kids, welcome in a gracious and giving home, a look of love from our spouse, a gentle breeze on a hot day, the list could go on.

Joy, hope and love are found in these moments. Like a beautiful sound track to a movie, they give unspoken sound to our hearts. Like jewels in our mind, glistening just out of reach and yet bouncing light everywhere.

These are the moments when I feel closest to God. Those moments when he uses other humans to help me feel His love.

God be with you today and may you feel the joy and peace of knowing that he sees you, regardless of what sorrow today may bring.

Built for each other

I have been noticeably absent or so a close friend told me the other day. I am sorry for that. Life has intruded. Not in a terrifying way, but in an “it’s too busy to collect my thoughts” kind of way. I am doing well, as is my family.

Having others check-in on us is such a gift. We all have a few people in our lives who keep an eye open for how we are doing and send a note or call when they are concerned. This is God’s work.

Community is hard to build in our crazy technocentric world. But it is so important. We are humans and it has never been good for us to be alone. God looked at Adam and decided he needed companionship and community. This is our foundation. This is one of the most important elements of humanity.

As we start to move our way out of the past years crazy isolation and fear start with community. Make time for each other. It matters.

Genesis 2:18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a helper suitable for him.”

As low as it can go

What do you do when you have nothing left? Your pride has been stripped. You have nothing to offer the world. You are naked and alone.

What do you do when the world has beaten you down and even those you love abandon you, walk by unprepared to get into the mess that you inhabit.

The good Samaritan did this. He did what others wouldn’t. He fed and clothed and cared for another.

We tell this story from the point of the Good Samaritan. We emulate and try to be like him as Jesus instructed. But maybe we are the man beaten on the ground. Maybe we need to be helped.

I need a saviour. I need someone willing to pay the price.

Luke 10: 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’