by Kevin Burton
My wife Jeannette sent me a devotional from the Bible app that leads with “Love is the beginning of everything.”
It’s written under the title, “The Great Love of Jesus.”
The closer I can stay to that theme and awareness, in what I do and say and pursue in life, the more on-target I will be.
Bill Watterson, the man behind the sublime Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, depicted the tyranny of the urgent by having the television and the telephone elevate off the tables, as if they had a life of their own as they demand our constant attention.
I say it’s more than OK, but mandatory, to ignore those things most of the time.
Or, let me say it this way. Did you ever notice that 99 percent of everything that is labelled breaking news is nothing but breaking wind?
You have my permission to ignore that stuff, fade it to the deep, deep background.
Urgent? I’ll tell you what’s urgent. In the time it took you to read the beginning of this post, multiple thousands of people opened their eyes in hell, with no savior and no remedy, no escape possible.
Now here’s the good stuff, the rest of the content from the Bible app. May if fix your focus and mine where it need to be.
“Love is the beginning of everything. You and I have life and breath at this very moment because God loves us. God created us because He wanted a people to love, and we are the recipients of His great love.”
“In 1 John 4:9, John tells his readers that the primary way God showed His love toward us is through Jesus. Even while we were considered enemies of God, He sent Jesus to earth on our behalf. While Jesus was on earth, he lived a sinless life as a representative of humanity to God. His death and resurrection made a way for us to be forgiven of our sins and begin a relationship with God.”
“God now gives us His love freely. There is nothing that we can do to earn His love, and there’s nothing about us that deserves His love. This is why John says love comes from God (1 John 4:7).”
“Love is our greatest responsibility in life. Jesus made it very clear to His disciples that loving God and loving others are the two greatest commandments. But the basis for all of this is the love of God through Jesus.”
“John tells us in 1 John 4:7-8 that those who truly know God will also love others. Our relationship with God is the model for how we should love other people. We should never deny someone something we’ve been freely given. And since we have freely received love from God, we should also freely give love to others.”
“Consider some ways you can love the people around you. Sometimes simply spending time with people is the best way to love them. There might also be someone you know who needs encouragement, or help meeting their needs. Think of one or two things you can do this week to show love to someone in your life.”
That last bit, the loving of other people, is the tough part. It is for me anyway. “I love mankind, it’s people I can’t stand.” Ever hear that one?
In this day and age it seems easier and easier every day to fall into that.
Only in Jesus can I even hope to love people the way I should. The farther my attention wanders from Jesus, his love for me and his instructions to me, the harder it is to even like people, let alone love them.
I promise you it is much easier for me to type these words than to actually follow up on them. But I thank my wife for this reminder via the Bible app, and I pray it will stick with you and me.
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