For the past few weeks, the word “love” keeps coming up in my life.
At church, as we’ve been going through 1 John, the past two sermons have centered on loving others and how God loves us no matter what. Last week, we read 1 John 4:7-12, which says (ESV):
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we may live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”
What really stands out to me in this passage is what I bolded: because God loves us, we must love one another. Not just like, or tolerate, but LOVE. And that is so hard to do, I know! There are definitely people in my life that are hard to love, but I must work continually every day to love them because God COMMANDS us to love them.
Pastor Brock gave 4 characteristics of God’s love:
1. Intentionally pursues and draws near (v. 9b)
2. Gives life (v. 9c)
3. Is NOT transactional (v. 10a)
4. Is self-sacrificing (v. 10b)
At small group the next night, we talked about which ones are more difficult for us to implement into our lives. For me, it’s definitely not thinking love should be transactional. I can hold grudges against people and it’s hard for me to forgive those who have wronged me and those close to me. I know I need to work on that and show love to those around me no matter what.
Okay, so I have a way to connect this to The World Race… and I will explain the title of my blog! Thanks for sticking with me 🙂
So last night, I went to Jason Mraz with my brother Trav. Our family looooves (haha get it, love! hehe) Jason Mraz! One reason he’s one of my favorite singers is because of the positive messages he carries in all of his songs. Senior year of high school, I remember any time I was stressed… I would get in my car and play “Love is a Four Letter Word” as I drove around because I knew it would always relax me.
On his latest album Know. he has a beautiful song, “Love is Still the Answer.” I recommend you give it a listen! Well actually, you can listen to some of it right now… I taped some of it from the concert last night! I’ll attach it to this post 🙂
As I was listening to the song, I was really thinking about the idea of loving EVERYONE, no matter what. No matter what they look like, who they voted for, what they say, what they have done in their life… no matter what – just showing love. How powerful would that be if we alllll did that every day? This is something I MUST take with me as I go on the race. I am going to come into contact with sooo many different people. Some people will share the same opinions as me… most won’t. And instead of judgement, I will show them LOVE.
These lyrics really stood out to me:
There’s only one answer that matters
Even if your heart has been shattered
Whatever you want, whatever you are after
Love is still the answer
Not only did I think about how my heart has been shattered, but how there are going to be people we meet whose hearts have been S H A T (clap emoji!) T E R E D in ways I can’t even imagine. I can use my brokenness, hurt, and pain to relate in some way… but I know I won’t ever understand some of the pain they have gone through. In those times, I will make sure to keep these lyrics with me and be sure to constantly show them love. I must DRAW NEAR to them, GIVE LIFE, not even think about the TRANSACTION, and for sureee be SACRIFICIAL. And not just that I love them, or my team loves them… but JESUS loves them and wants to have a deep, intimate relationship with them.
It was cool to see how many times “love” was coming up in my life, and in different ways… I think the Lord was trying to tell me something!! 🙂
Also, showing this kind of love doesn’t start in Indonesia and end in Zambia… it starts NOW and continues for the rest of my life!!!
Here is Jason’s live performance of “Love is Still the Answer” … I encourage you to listen to his other songs and think about how to apply his words to your life! 🙂 And of course, what the Word says as well!
