The Love Test
Dear Friends,
Love is a great motivator. It can send you out in the middle of the night for medicine. It can get you up early to make breakfast for someone dear to you. It can move you to do things that you hate doing because you are doing it for someone that is important to you. It can even make you discipline someone when you would rather let it go. It can cause you to make sacrifices – to think beyond yourself – to focus your energy outwardly. Love is the stuff of healthy relationships and it is the primary ingredient in our life of faith. Jesus reminded us that the two most important things are loving God with our whole selves and loving our neighbors as ourselves.
But sometimes, when we are serving and looking out for others (even in our own families) we don’t feel very loving. Sometimes we grumble, frown, worry, and gripe. The look on our faces gives us away. Sometimes we are “loving others” out of obligation or just to get someone off our case (a selfish thing – cause it really is all about us). The Bible’s often quoted “love chapter” reminds us what love really looks like.
“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a)
Print this out. Post it on your wall or mirror or dashboard. Commit it to memory. When you find yourself frowning, fretting, and grumbling put your own actions to the test. What is missing? Ask God for help. Ask God to give you a heart of love for that person you are serving or for whom you are caring. I think you will find that your perspective will change and your load will become a bit lighter.
To God be the Glory!
Robert
