Loving Well
Yesterday in church Pastor Scott encouraged us to learn the love language of our spouse, children, friends ... spurring us toward the new commandment Jesus gives in John 13:34 ... love one another as I have loved you.
Loving well.
My heart is built in a way that pulls it toward the brokenhearted ... my eyes see deep into the person and reach out to what the eyes silently cry out and the mouth thrashes trying to find words to express. Often my spoken questions give an opening for people to begin to share what has their heart in knots. It isn't something I do with intent or that I set out with purpose toward on a trip to the grocery store, but it happens daily. At school ... the student with an ill parent, an ailing grandmother, parents who are struggling, grades that are failing ... at the grocery ... the acquaintance whose husband left her, the man Randy works with whose wife has cancer, the coach who got railroaded out, the woman who wants a drink but doesn't want to walk that road ... at church ... the family who has been hurt by churches over and over and can't find a place, the secret struggle of the one who is depressed, a child with a medical struggle, the adult child who has wandered, the children that never came and the husband who has yet to show that love really is an action.
Every one of these I have encountered in the past month, just in passing. And by the way, do not even cover the struggles of those I am intimately doing life with and the struggles they face.
And so as I began to assimilate the information of yesterday with the reality of a dozen yesterdays I had to ask myself if I am Loving Well.
My conclusion was one I had not expected ...
Loving well requires time. And I was not giving of my time to many. One or two people have been where I have chosen to invest myself. And all these others ... they were like drive bys ... I triaged those involved, listened half-heartedly ... and came away exhausted from the entire exercise in futility. And then it occurred to me that we really do have a responsibility to one another. It isn't presumed. It isn't true under the best of circumstances. It isn't as it fits into my schedule. It is who has the Father put in my path.
Jesus doesn't triage us ... He listens intentionally to our every moment. He ministers to them ... individually. Today I will open my eyes and watch for the one that He places in the reach of my heart and will obey this new commandment. Loving them in a way that speaks life ... remembering that Jesus wasn't born that we might have a wonderful excuse to give each other meaningless gifts. But rather that He was born into this earth that we might share the ultimate gift of Love.
Loving well.
My heart is built in a way that pulls it toward the brokenhearted ... my eyes see deep into the person and reach out to what the eyes silently cry out and the mouth thrashes trying to find words to express. Often my spoken questions give an opening for people to begin to share what has their heart in knots. It isn't something I do with intent or that I set out with purpose toward on a trip to the grocery store, but it happens daily. At school ... the student with an ill parent, an ailing grandmother, parents who are struggling, grades that are failing ... at the grocery ... the acquaintance whose husband left her, the man Randy works with whose wife has cancer, the coach who got railroaded out, the woman who wants a drink but doesn't want to walk that road ... at church ... the family who has been hurt by churches over and over and can't find a place, the secret struggle of the one who is depressed, a child with a medical struggle, the adult child who has wandered, the children that never came and the husband who has yet to show that love really is an action.
Every one of these I have encountered in the past month, just in passing. And by the way, do not even cover the struggles of those I am intimately doing life with and the struggles they face.
And so as I began to assimilate the information of yesterday with the reality of a dozen yesterdays I had to ask myself if I am Loving Well.
My conclusion was one I had not expected ...
Loving well requires time. And I was not giving of my time to many. One or two people have been where I have chosen to invest myself. And all these others ... they were like drive bys ... I triaged those involved, listened half-heartedly ... and came away exhausted from the entire exercise in futility. And then it occurred to me that we really do have a responsibility to one another. It isn't presumed. It isn't true under the best of circumstances. It isn't as it fits into my schedule. It is who has the Father put in my path.
Jesus doesn't triage us ... He listens intentionally to our every moment. He ministers to them ... individually. Today I will open my eyes and watch for the one that He places in the reach of my heart and will obey this new commandment. Loving them in a way that speaks life ... remembering that Jesus wasn't born that we might have a wonderful excuse to give each other meaningless gifts. But rather that He was born into this earth that we might share the ultimate gift of Love.
posted by Amy B @ 8:08 AM
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