I am ready for the election season to be over. I am ready for COVID-19 to be a thing of the past. I am ready to be in community with my friends and go out to eat or to watch a movie without worrying about the virus. So many of us are fed up with the state of the world and we feel helpless. The hardest part of everything right now is seeing how ugly we, as humans, are to each other. And why is it that people think it is okay to spew venom on social media? Once words are put out into the world they cannot be taken back. Why are we doing these things to each other.
Today I preached about the greatest commandment. Matthew 22:34-39 reads, “He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
As a Christian I love God. No doubt. With every part of my being. It is the second part of this passage that is hard. Loving my neighbor as much as I love myself is not easy in our COVID-19/political world. As much as I preach that the main message of the Gospel is to love others, I find that I am struggling with this now more than ever. I must look past the caps that promote a political candidate and look at what is under the slogan…a person who has a rich story.
In a recent sermon I remarked that when I pass people in the aisle at the grocery store, I see them as walking books filled with stories and experiences unique to the world. That is how I must imagine every person with whom I disagree. These people have families, careers, struggles and joys just like me. They are no less or more important that I am, and God loves them the same as I am loved.
I need to wake up each day with a renewed heart, mind, and soul ready to love. I may be ready not to love before my first cup of coffee, but I can immediately reset myself to keep moving forward with my next thought being love.
What about you? Will you join me this week as I work extra hard to have an attitude of love each day?
Today I Am Thankful For:
- Burlap wreaths
- Homemade beef jerky
- Trying new things
- Possible snow!
- New pajamas
