I've had a page bookmarked in my latest Donald Miller read for the last 6 days and decided it's finally time for me to sit down and share this fine thought with the rest of you.
The chapter I'm reading is looking a little bit more deeply into some of the characteristics of Jesus that are evident as we read the gospels. One of the characteristics that has meant a little more to me is that Jesus liked to be with people.
Don't get me wrong.
He also went up on the mountainside to pray on His own
and to have that down time/quiet time/ time with His Father.
But there's a little piece of what Miller said that got me to thinking.
"Jesus built our faith system entirely on relationships, forgoing marketing efforts and spin.
Not only that, but one of the criticisms of Christ was that He was a friend of pagans. Not that He hung out with pagans, but that He was their friend."
And I think to myself,
It's all about people.
He has called us to love one another.
And that's it.
That's the clincher.
Someone did a solo of "O Holy Night" tonight.
And it struck me again.
"Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace."
His law is love.
A good friend and I were discussing this a few years ago
and our conversation still sticks out in my mind.
He kept going on about how complicated we make it and how simple it's supposed to be.
Not that really, truly loving someone is simple.
But that the concept is so straight forward.
And in that we are answering God's intense call for obedience.
Loving Him means loving others.
It means living a life that's not about me.
He didn't just hang out.
He befriended them.
He befriended me.
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