LOVE. Isn't it a crazy thing? Someone once said it is the only shocking act left on the planet. Love moves us to do crazy things. Things that others cannot possibly understand looking on from the sidelines.
Wasn't it Jim Elliott's love of God and the nations that moved him to die by the hands of those he was trying to reach, leading them to come to a relationship with Christ? Then Jose Gomez, back in May, who jumped in front of a train to save his friends life. Wasn't that for love? Corrie Ten Boom risked her own life to help jews escape Nazi Concentration camps because she valued and loved others. God loved and valued our eternal lives so much he sent His son to die in our place.
Once you have grasped love you realize this world cannot survive without it. To be loved by friends, family, or any other human being is really one of the greatest gifts there is. If we all ceased to love and value humans this human race would cease to exist. The greatest commandment God gave us was to love him and love others.
God not only commanded us to love others. But he also gave us the commandment to not murder. If I were being honest, this is often a commandment I have not put much weight in. Because I knew that hating your brother in your heart meant you were also a murderer. But even then. I wasn't very convicted by it. And then, I ran across this:
"When you think of men and women as anything less than the image of God you devalue life and cheapen it"
And I realized, that is a form of murder isn't it? When we begin to slowly think of others as less than human or less than made in God's image it starts to lead to all kinds of evil. This is where murder begins.
And I realized that I think of others as less than being made in the image of God all the time. I fail to love others every day. I am going to be honest here, I have a really big issue loving others that are not kind to me. And God tells us it's of no merit to us to only love those who love us in return. But it's loving those who are hateful, rude or unkind that really shows Christ lives within us. The way I view other people is not very loving. In fact, I am stripping others of who God made them to be all the time.
I was in Wal-Mart just the other day picking up pictures. THe lady kept saying things like,"I'm not very good at finding peoples names on these things". Then followed up with "I don't think your pictures are here". Of course in my head I am thinking,"You're an idiot. Let me come do it myself" "Why do you even work here?". I was nice to the ladies face. Then I went home and looked at my email and realized my pictures were sent to an entirely different wal-mart. And I started to realize I do this all the time. I am always thinking condescending thoughts towards other people in my head. And, that is so far from loving. It's very far from viewing them the way Christ calls me to. What if the lady in wal-mart was having a bad day? What if I could've talked to her about Jesus? But I was too busy bashing her in my head to look for opportunities to love her.
God has been convicting me lately about my love of other people. It's definitely lacking. Jesus went out of his way for others. He gave of his entire self to reach out to others and genuinely love them. He viewed them as made in the image of God.
With my new job I run into all sorts of people. And it is tempting sometimes, not to be rude to them, but to view them in my mind as less than who they really are.
And before I can go to the nations and reach them for Christ, I should be trying to develop a right view of others. I should learn to love them the way I am called to. Because they are all made in the image of God. And the only thing that makes me any different from some is the grace of God in my life. That doesn't make me better. Because it's not by my ability or power, but by God's alone.
So I am praying that I will begin to see the people (not just overseas) but in America through Jesus' eyes.
