It’s easier to go to church or join a church then… just keep loving people.
It’s easier to prepare a sermon or listen to one then… just keep loving people.
It’s easier to share an opinion or bash the opinion of another then… just keep loving people
I am preaching to myself…
It’s the simple basic command of the Gospel that Jesus spoke of and demonstrated… just keep loving people.
We all know people who are good at this in different ways. Some of you are great at loving addicts and alcoholics. Some of you are great at loving your neighbor, or the lonely, or the infirm. And some of you are great at carrying your love across cultural and/or geographical divides to love people from different places and different backgrounds.
Sam Riviera has a great post, from his own experiences, on how to love homeless people. As Sam says in his article:
I remember that old adage “I don’t care what you think until I know you care about me.” I probably misquoted it, but you get the idea. Another way of stating the same idea: We must earn the right to be heard. Our currency is caring and loving.
The church and Christians lost the right to be heard in many peoples’ lives long ago. Instead of finding caring and loving, they found disinterest at best, meanness, hatred, anger, and judgment at worst.
Our friends, be they the homeless, the poor, our neighbors, or our gay friends, want to talk. They tell us their stories. We listen. They ask us questions. We answer their questions, talk with them, shake their hands, hug them, and in the case of the homeless give them some water and maybe an orange and a pair of socks, a tarp, or a warm coat.
Sometimes when we’re on the street and we answer their questions with “We’re here to show the love of Jesus to the folks here in the neighborhood,” they start crying. I don’t remember how many times this has happened, but it’s not unusual.
Just keep loving people… and do it your way!. As Mother Teresa said, “Find your own Calcutta.” It does not get any more real, organic, and fruit-bearing than that!
Comments
3 responses to “Just Keep Loving People”
Indeed, “do small things with great love”. Teresa d’Kolkata
Love without The Gospel is just humanisme and does not bring everlasting fruit: Christians in the housechurch organic church or emerging church have fallen in one of Church historie’s greatest trapps: one-sidedness. The separation of Grace and Law, by stressing one truth of the coin. Love without Law, Grace without Law is neither love nor grace. We see in church hostorie: When the salvation army stopped preaching repentance and only distributed sup and soap the right wringh of the Gospel has been cut off and the Eagle has fallen to the ground not anymore plundering hell. So be aware not only doing humanistic work without delivering men from sin. I am speaking from a European perspective! Doing all the diakonic work without preaching the gospel and guiding People to repentance, drove Europe into spiritual bankrupsy and has made it to a secular place with less than 2% Christians!
Thanks for sharing this encouragement. There are so many opportunities to show love to people – most of the time it is the simple things that can make a difference. Most people don’t want us to solve their problems, they want us to love them through whatever they are going through and support them in whatever way we can. I found the same, when talking to the homeless on the streets – most of the time they just want to be listened to and respected and that often meets a need in them that’s greater than any physical need we can meet for them.