Love: More or Less

 The cashier looks at us and says the words everyone hopes to hear standing in the checkout line. "I'll take the next in line over here" as she opens a new lane.

A man and his wife cut in front of our family at the grocery store. I'm holding my six month old son, he's crying, having exhausted all patience for this place. My oldest son is bouncing from rack to rack begging for candy. My wife has had a LONG week. Sick kids, crazy work stress, the pressures of ministry. How do we react?

Love. But it doesn't feel very lovely. In fact I have a rare talent for opening my mouth at all of the wrong times. And this is one of those times when I absolutely want to. But I don't. Truthfully it won't hurt us to wait a couple of more minutes—and I don't know what is going on with this young couple that they feel the need to rush in front of a dozen or so other people. 

Now, don't confuse love in this situation with quiet, or passiveness. In fact, never confuse love with quiet or passiveness. Sometimes loving someone means making A LOT of noise and getting right in their face to tell them the hard thing they need to hear. 

I work with people. Most of us do. I see people, talk to people, and help people daily. If I don't love them how can I fulfill what I believe to be my life's purpose? Really that's what this idea boils down to for me. 

Every day, in every situation, we have a choice to make regarding each person we interact with. We can choose to love them more, or love them less. 

Loving them more could mean extending grace, holding back judgement, and offering goodwill, but it could also mean correction or confrontation. We have to decide that. You know, like that famous Disney cricket from the 20th century said, "Let your conscience be your guide."

What does it mean to love people less? Well, don't we see the fruits of this on a regular basis? War and violence, disrespect and discord. 

In the absence of love there will be the presence of something. Some emotion. Some thoughts or feelings. I choose to fill my heart and thoughts with love toward others. I don't always get it right. But I'm aiming to love more, not less.

What about you? It's not a one time sweeping decision. It's an every day—every interaction—kind of decision. Choose. Because you can. Choose to love more, not less.

Thanks for reading,

Nate

Choice & Warning

I came across this passage during my reading time today:

When you enter the land that GOD, your God, is giving you and take it over and settle down, and then say, “I’m going to get me a king, a king like all the nations around me,” make sure you get yourself a king whom GOD, your God, chooses. Choose your king from among your kinsmen; don’t take a foreigner—only a kinsman. And make sure he doesn’t build up a war machine, amassing military horses and chariots. He must not send people to Egypt to get more horses, because GOD told you, “You’ll never go back there again!” And make sure he doesn’t build up a harem, collecting wives who will divert him from the straight and narrow. And make sure he doesn’t pile up a lot of silver and gold. (Deuteronomy 17:14-17 MSG)

I've probably read that passage through dozens of times across twenty-plus years of consistent bible reading, but something about it finally hit me tonight. All of the things the people were being warned about were things that they would eventually go on to do. From their desire to be like other nations and have a king, to the foibles of the kings themselves. This passage reads like a list of the problems and mistakes made by Israel.

What does that mean for us? It means we should pay attention. God knows our mistakes before we ever have the opportunity to make them. I believe He gives us the opportunity to make the right decisions. I believe He gives us forewarning.

I've been asked this before: if God knows our choices before we make them does that mean there is still a choice involved? Yes, I believe so. I believe that we are granted a free will to act and choose. The option to deny God makes choosing Him all the sweeter.

Choice elicits opportunity for desire. Desire is the fruit of the heart. It reveals what we want to do. It reveals our nature. It reveals who we are.

God knows our choices. God knows our options. He loves us deeply, even when we choose poorly, but it makes the journey of walking life out with Him a continual act of worship.

October 20 - Choosing to Believe

Mark 15:21-32

"Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him. (Mark 15:32 ESV)

As Jesus hung upon the cross there were many people gathered to watch the horrible event unfold. Many of the onlookers were hostile, but not all of them. Some that had gathered were believers, and still others were not. Those that had yet to believe were frightening the cruelty of the crucifixion by heaping prideful mockery upon Christ.

We don't know the numbers but many people who followed Jesus to Golgotha where he was crucified were there to lament and mourn for him. There also were those present who did not believe. But the one defining difference in the two groups was their ideas about who Jesus was. It was a difference of belief.

My position is that belief is a choice. You choose what you do or do not believe. The scribes and religious people regularly asked Jesus to perform signs, but when he did they didn't meet their super religious criteria, or they somehow cut out their scandalous religious pyramid scheme. So those guys chose not to believe in Jesus despite all the miracles he had performed in front of their eyes.

They taunted him. Casting their doubts in the form of dangling skepticism and might-have-been-belief, but the simple truth is that they had chosen not to believe Jesus was the messiah. What do you believe?

September 23 - Are You?

John 18:12-18

The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” (John 18:17 ESV)

In every journey of faith there is a decision point. Truthfully there are many many times you will be faced with tough decisions. But some of those will be more difficult than others.

Jesus had been arrested and his disciples fled. Well, almost all of them. Peter and another disciple had followed Jesus into the compound of the Jewish High Priest. It was a dangerous place for them to be found.

While there Peter was identified as a follower of Jesus. Suddenly his anonymity was gone, and he was faced with a potentially mortal question. "Are you a disciple?" And Peter did the unthinkable, he denied Jesus.

You will probably find yourself in a similar place in this life. At some point down the road you will be on hostile territory, surrounded by people who don't understand you, and they will pointedly ask if you have any allegiance to Jesus. Sometimes this can be an overt kind of persecution that leads possible violence. Or, as is often the case in western cultures, it is the prelude to quiet disdain and snarky rejection.

How will you answer the question when you are asked? Will the weight of the circumstances influence your decision?

April 28 - To Life

Read: Matthew 7:12-14

For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:14 ESV)

All of us have chosen death at some point in our lives. Often we probably didn't even mean to. Sometimes we actually probably thought we were choosing life.

Jesus taught a few things about life. He taught that he was the way, the truth, and the life. He taught that he came so that those who believed in him and followed him would have abundant life. He also taught that the entry point, the gate, and the path to life were narrow.

What all of that boils down to is this—Jesus is life. When we choose selfishness we choose death. When we choose our own path we choose death. Even with the best of intentions, without choosing Jesus we choose death.

That sounds horrible. It certainly could be. Except that Jesus actually made choosing him a pretty simple thing. It is simply a matter of faith. That means combining belief in Jesus as savior, with trust in Jesus for your future. That is the direction toward the path of life.