"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'" ~ Matthew 25:37-39 (NIV)Well, I've never gotten a phone call from Jesus. In my life, Jesus usually can't find his phone - or, that is, my neighbor Marilyn can't find her phone. Frequently for the second or third time that week. Marilyn usually shows up looking rather disheveled, and from the numbers of times I've been over at her house helping her find her phone, her house looks like her appearance times about 10. It's not entirely surprising that she continues to lose her phone - which is always on vibrate. So she stops by and asks my roommates and me to call her phone so that she can attempt to hear it ringing while she looks for it, and we pleasantly say that we're happy to help - it's the right thing to do.
But sometimes it's hard. When she stops by at 5am or 11pm, we don't always want to answer the door. When it's the 5th time in a day or 3rd time that week, we wonder why she doesn't just find a way to keep track of her phone for once. When we've been calling for 15 minutes straight or have reached 6 dozen phone calls in a day, all with no answer, we decide to give up. But gosh darn it, I remember that Jesus is coming to dinner, so I keep agreeing to help with a smile on my face and guilt on my brain - but no love in my heart.
I just started attending a new church after a year and a half without one. I knew I was longing for a community to worship with but wasn't sure about jumping in to a community to grow in faith with. The church is starting a congregation-wide Bible Study called "40 Days of Love," and the goal of church leadership is to get as many adults as possible to sign up for a small group. I've only gone there three weeks - jumping into a small group Bible Study felt like making a large commitment much too early. But after my summer choir wrapped its regular singing season, I began to realize how much I missed the support of a faith community, and I accepted that I needed to find myself a more consistent community of people with whom to grow in faith. But did I really want to join a Bible Study? Couldn't I just show up at a one-time event as I worked to discover if this was to be my long-term church home? And was this really the right Bible Study for me? I feel like I've got a decent grasp on what God's love looks like, what loving other people looks like, and I longed to learn something new and different for once.
"When we recognize God's unconditional love for us, we start cutting other people some slack." Ouch. The associate pastor's words fell on my ears with a sting on Sunday. I've generally considered myself a loving person - but I'm really bad at cutting people slack. I mean, if they're particularly important to me, I'm better. Or with my students, especially in the primary grades, I can generally handle it by reminding myself that they're little and still learning. But, more often than not, I could use a lesson in cutting people some slack.
"We want to be the church that's known for loving people. And, even more so, we want to be the church known for teaching people how to love." That's the whole point of these small groups - to get better at loving people the way Jesus does. To learn to live a life where we love not when it's deserved, not when it's convenient, but when it means sacrificing of ourselves to love the other person. And, it turns out, I still have some lessons to learn and practice to do in really loving like Jesus loves. So now I'm signed up for a 6-week small group study - 6 weeks is important because supposedly that's how long it takes to build a habit. So maybe after 6 weeks loving others will be less of a guilt-ridden decision and more of a habit where, through the Holy Spirit living in me, I see a bit more of the Jesus living in people around me. Because if Jesus is coming to dinner, I want to welcome Him in not because I should but because I'm thankful for a Savior who taught me how to love by first loving me.
I really like this writing. Memories of Bible Camp skits really bring this home. And I think it shows how those simple lessons we might learn early in life aren't always simple in everyday life. Happy adventuring!!!
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