Sunday, January 29, 2012

SOS


I hope it's not cheating that I'm writing this ahead of time, but my reasons are twofold. First of all, Sunday can be a little crazy in our house. James and I have nursery duty this week, which makes for an even busier morning because we have to be there earlier than normal. Once we actually get to church, it's a little oasis of peacefulness (well, maybe not so much in the nursery - we've got a good crop of babies, including two sets of twins), but the getting-there process can be a little hairy. Then afterwards, we often stop to pick up tacos (10 for $3.90 - can't beat that, combined with leftovers from the week). Then we have to play catch-up with errand-running, list-completing, and house-cleaning. It's all topped off by James usually having to work on Sunday nights and me having to take the kids for piano lessons (where dinner is usually provided - thank the Lord for that - I will have to make it a point to let my mother-in-law know how much I appreciate her Sunday night meals this week). But, more importantly, I wanted to create this post earlier because I was reading Mark Dever's What Is a Healthy Church? during the week and I was completely inspired and challenged by this little passage:

...Jesus said that "all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments": love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself (see Matt. 22:34-40). The two commandments go together. The first produces the second, and the second proves the first.

The first commandment, I think, is the far easier of the two. Loving God is (usually) easy, like loving your children at their very best, most peaceful, heartfelt moments. After all, He is all to us - the source of all life and it's multitudinous blessings. But I find the second commandment much, much harder to practice. I've heard it many times before, as any good church and parochial school kid has, but the author's statement that loving your neighbor is a testimony to your love for God for all the world to see is powerful, powerful stuff. Loving your fellow man, especially those whose connection to you is as tenuous as that of a neighbor, is so hard. This is, of course, because of man's sinful nature (and the fact that we know that it mirrors our own, far too often). Now, as I'm sitting here typing this out, Tim Tebow just popped into my head, of all subjects. How silly is that? I don't know a terrible amount about Tim Tebow, but I am a football fan and a Christian, so I've heard his name frequently in the last month or so. I can't help but think that this might be a case where loving your neighbor as yourself might prove your love and dedication to Christ much more powerfully than a public prayer spectacle. I'm going to jot the passage down and sticky it to my desk this week, and try to "prove" my love for God not by what I say, but by who I am.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Great post...makes me think of Luke 6:27-36...I think of it every time that I think someone "deserves" my attitude:)

The Fifes said...

Such a great post...thank you for the reminder and inspiration as it's not usually easy!