“It’s all about Love”

Greetings!  If you’ve listened on the radio or read anything I’ve written since coming to WBFJ, it’s probably “apparent” that I can be “transparent.”  Today will be no exception.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about myself and taking a personal inventory of my life.  Some would call that introspective, but I’ve come to realize that it’s been a PPP (Personal Pity Party!).  If I’d only done this, if I just had that, if my neighbors were politer…you get the picture.  An old friend used to express it best when he said “Oh, woe is I!”

You know what’s wrong with that? Yep, it’s all about “I.”  And as I’ve come to realize with God’s loving help, it’s pretty selfish.  And selfish is anything and everything but being loving.  So, let’s circle the wagons and get real with each other for a moment.

How can we truly love others when we’re always focusing on ourselves? It doesn’t leave much time for that.  I’ll even take it a step further.  How can we love others when we’re always judging one another and talking behind each other’s backs?  Is that being loving? Selfish?  One might say the latter, because isn’t that a way of trying to prop ourselves up and overcome our own deep-seeded insecurities?  What other purpose does it really serve?  And those Facebook posts…I could write a whole other Wednesday Word on those alone!

Though it’s taken a lot of sleepless nights and bouts of depression to come around to this, I believe that where God is trying to take me to in Act III of my life is a place of “True and Real Love;” for Him, for others and maybe even for myself.  And what does that look like?  We need go no further than to His word to find the answers:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

I Corinthians 13:1-7 (NIV)

Truth be told, these are pretty lofty goals that will probably never be fully realized by we mere humans in this life.  The idea, I believe, is to keep moving in that direction while trying to follow the example of the one who truly lived (and died) Love for us all…Jesus.

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

John 15:13 (NIV)

And while you and I may never do this as literally as Jesus did for us, couldn’t we all move a little closer towards “laying down” our own lives and focusing more on others?  Could that move us closer to truly loving others?  Though I can’t speak for you, I now know what the answer is for me…and thank you Jesus.

Grace and Peace,

Dennis