Good Shepherd Lutheran

Living into Love
Love not only is but love also does. It shows itself in deeds. But there’s even more to it than that. The brand of love that Jesus offered is more about being present than it is about undertaking a project. The thing that people need most is just to have us be there for them. To be present and have us really listen to them. You don’t need a counseling degree to hold someone in your prayers and in your arms when they need it. Love cares more about who’s hurting than who’s watching. We need to just love those in need and stop worrying about doing it wrong.
Too often we’re afraid to share the love of God with others. Sharing our faith seems scary somehow. We’re afraid because we don’t know what to say. So instead of obeying the great commandment about sharing God’s love and making disciples of all nations, we do nothing.
When you feel like you can’t explain your faith, go love someone instead. That simple act explains more than any spoken testimony ever could. The act of loving someone, especially someone who needs your love in that moment, is a greater testimony for God’s love than words can ever express.
I used to think that I needed to fix people. To take away the hurt and make them better. But now I just want to be with them. When we’re focused on how we can fix things and make things better we too often neglect the one thing they need most. Love.
People don’t need a fixer. They need a friend. They need someone to walk the path with them in the same way that Jesus walked the path with us by becoming human. Sharing our lives, our loves and our fears. Sharing our joys and our pain. Most people need love and acceptance a lot more than they need advice.
In John 13:31-35 Jesus commands us to “love one another”. In 1 John 4:7, John says the same thing and then gives us the reason for this command: “… because love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” Then John gives us the supreme example of the kind of love that comes from God. “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love … not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Think about that. It seems like we’ve been missing the most important point of all. We’ve lost the thread of the story and we’ve missed the punch line. And that is that the God of the universe is nuts about us. He loves us so much that He gave His only Son for us. So, live into that love by loving others just as He first loved us.