Day 2 -- LOVE: It's a choice

So much of what's good and right in me is the result of those people God has placed in my life to love me. I wouldn't be a pastor if my wife Erin hadn't given me the gift of her own authentic faith when I had none of my own. I wouldn't know the bedrock principles of leadership if God hadn't placed a mentor in my life, half way through my seminary training, who saw great potential in me and gave me the gift of doing anything BUT setting the bar too low. I"m a pretty rough piece of turquoise most of the time. But over the years God has surrounded me with a community that sees, expects, demands, and LOVES more out of me than I would ever give or dream I have to give if left to myself.

Many of you related and connected to the turquoise image I used in my sermon on Day 1. The love of a close community is like the friction created in a rock tumbler...tumbling the rough edges and crevasses out of our nature and simultaneously revealing what's most beautiful in us (the polished surface that lets us see into the rock's nature bringing out its native color and character) while also creating a reflective surface that more selflessly mirrors the beauty in others around us.

At the end of the day, I am the product of the choice of others to love me even when they didn't feel like doing so. And so are you. We hear this command from Jesus in John 13:34-5: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another."

Well, there it is. You and I both know that those we live with in community aren't always that easy to love. Perhaps the same thing could just as easily be said about ourselves. But Jesus' commandment asks us to strive for this ethic: that in our choice to love one another the world would see how it is we choose to reflect and draw out what is best in each other rather than what is worst. Our love for each other is what calls us to life. Our love for each other is the vehicle through which the nature of the God of love is made visible to the world.

PRAYER FOR THE DAY: Lord Jesus, today you will place me in situations and circumstances where I may not feel like loving others. But you will still call me to choose to love them. I pray strength for this work today, and pray that as you unleash your love in my life today, I might be a catalyst for what is best in others rather than what is worst, that your beloved human community might reflect the power of your kingdom. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen

TASK FOR THE DAY: Name the people in your life that bring out the best in you and that have a deep and abiding commitment to love you even when you are unlovable. Then pick up the phone, send an e-card or normal card and tell those people what their love for you and presence in your life has done to build you up and how it has shaped you for the better.