Love & Serve

I think it’s always a pretty common theme of “what now” once you get home from a trip like ours to Nicaragua.  I’ve felt the same each time I returned from Ethiopia and when I came home from Swaziland.  I felt a closeness to God…like I had just spent time directly with Him.  A deeper appreciation for my brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world.  A feeling of shame in the excess we live in.  Challenged to make changes in my own heart…to increase my joy, hope and trust in God.  A determination to keep this passion and light for God lit bright.  To keep my relationship with Him going strong.  And a mind full of ideas on how we could partner with our brothers and sisters around the world…how we could join hand in hand and make a difference together.

It was easy to be focussed in on God and spending time with Him while in Nicaragua.  Keeping that passion at home is hard for me.  Now that we’ve been home the world around me has gotten loud again.  It’s a daily battle to make sure I give God the time He well deserves and that I need.  I need Him.  Apart from Him I am nothing.  I need the closeness and the connection.  Life can get so busy and it starts to pull me in every direction.  I easily slip back into prioritizing my to-do list and about a million other things above taking the time to be with God…to listen and hear Him…to enjoy His love and company.

Since the time my kids were little I have told them they are going to change the world because A) I believe it And B) I want them to believe it.  Sometimes it’s hard to really believe that kind of statement about yourself…that God could in fact use us to change the world.  I’m a messy sinner who can’t even keep my quiet time with God regular…not even accounting for my laundry list of other mistakes.  It’s hard to stare out an airplane window headed back to my everyday reality with such an overwhelmed heart and realize the largeness of our world and really think you could make a difference in some way.

Our world is so big.  I think sometimes we account for how big the world is and we decide to do nothing.  We go ahead and make up our mind we could never really have an impact…we limit God.  This is exactly what I do.  I basically say “no” to a question I haven’t even been asked yet.  As I’ve gone back over our week in Nicaragua I can’t negate the fact I was blessed and ministered to last week.  I was loved on and served.  And God brings me right back to those things…loving and serving others in His name.  Coming to Him just as I am…laying it all down…accepting I’ll never get it all right…and just trying to do my best to love and serve.

I love how The Message words Matthew 22:37-40

 When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?”

Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”

I love how it says those two commands are pegs and everything hangs from them.  These are the big ones…loving God and loving others.  Serving and caring and showing kindness and generosity and compassion and respect just as you would want shown to you.  We can do that…inspite of all our short comes and failures.  I want to remember this daily because loving God and loving others can be done anywhere.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be big and fancy, it can be small, simple and plain.

When life around me gets too loud and the world seems too large to link arm and arm with I’m finding it more and more important to lean in a little closer and let God be Himself.  Tell Him what a screw up I know I am, but beg Him to remind me daily to love.  To realize loving Him and loving others is enough to really change the world and in turn it infiltrates my relationship with Him causing me to focus intently on less of me and more of Him.

I feel like you guys are straight up my sounding board for the one gazillion thoughts and questions and craziness in my head this week.  I have loved your comments and emails.  Thank you for reading and stopping by and just being kind.  Who knows…I’ll probably talk about this again tomorrow because I just can’t kick it out of my brain just yet.

Happy Thursday!