Two little words......

I’ve spent the last week meditating on a passage of the Bible, telling us how to use the specific gifts God gave us to minister to the world around us – 1 Corinthians 14.  Lots of good stuff in that chapter, but I haven’t even made it past the first two words. 

Pursue love.  (NRV)

What a perfect summary of what it means to be a Christian! We begin our new spiritual lives with the awareness of the depth of Christ’s love for us.  The love that is unmerited, unconditional, and yes, unheard of for many of us.  (It took me nearly 25 years before I really began to comprehend His love for me – and I think I’m still only scratching the surface.)

As I become confident in his love, what am I supposed to do? 

Pursue love.  Or as Jesus defined it, love one another. 

It's easy to love most of the people in my life.  I love my husband, more every day.  I fell in love with my children -- long before they were even born.  And I love my extended family.  The friends who have walked beside me through a host of ups and downs.  For all of these, love isn’t really so much of a pursuit as it is a natural response to the love I have received from them.

There definitely are people who I find difficult to love, though.

Maybe it’s because of past actions or hurts they have caused. Choices that they made that I disagree with. Perhaps they, or someone similar to them, have wounded me in the past.  Or they have a life so different from mine that I have trouble identifying with them.  Whatever the issue, loving them requires effort for me.  A great deal of it. 

And yet it’s what I’m called to do.

It doesn’t mean that I have to agree with everything that they say or do.  It doesn’t mean that I enable them.  Or refuse to speak words of truth when I have been specifically instructed by God to do so. 

It also doesn’t mean that I need to rush to solve their problems with a particular program or ministry.  Give them a three point sermon and about what they need to change.  Not immediately, maybe not ever.

It DOES require me to accept them for who they are, and where they are in their spiritual walk.  To honor their worth as a human being, giving dignity where there is none.  To encourage, champion, and affirm.  

Maybe, just maybe, that’s all I’m supposed to do.

Pursue love. 

What if that became our life’s quest?