This morning was a whirlwind of activity. I got up early to go take my brother to school and pick up my car from the shop, then took my sister to swim practice. I accomplished more in three hours than I had all last week! haha. As we drove I listened to the radio and talked with my dad about all that was wrong with the world. Oh boy is there a lot. I mean it's so much that I was getting really discouraged. I got in my car after we picked it up and talked to God the whole way home about how really messed up things are. How could they ever be fixed?
I know people who are really angry, all the time. They just can't seem to see the light, even when good things happen. It's easy to get that way today isn't it? Orlando, ISIS, economy, elections, even problems in your own home. How can anyone be happy, or anything be ok? How could anything be fixed? The people I know get fixated on the wrong. Fixated on how badly they've been hurt that they can't see any good. They want justice. They want revenge. They want everyone to be in the same depths as them, not necessarily out of spite, but because they think that they see reality and are doing others a favor. I was one of them for a while.
Then God slapped me and said "Knock it off goofball. KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid."
Over the past few weeks I've been really thinking about this a lot, God's simplicity, and how He could possibly operate in all of this, and how it could be fixed. The more I do, the more I see the answer staring right in front of me:
"Hello World, Hope you're listening. Forgive me if I'm young for speaking out of turn...
I get lost in the beauty of everything I see, and the world ain't half as bad as they paint it to be.
If all the sons and all the daughters stop to take it in
the hopefully the hate subsides
and the love can begin."
- Come Home by One Repulic (selections, divisions added)
Love. Love radically. That's it. That's all there is to it. Maybe you say I'm just young, naive, and unrealistic. Yeah, that's true. I am young and naive. I know I can't save the world. But one person loving radically can change all of that. One woman going into the slums brought hope to millions around the world. One man choosing to peacefully stand up for the Truth brought a revolution in how we treat others in America. How? They chose to love, and love radically. She just showed people that they were humans too, and deserved to be treated like it, no matter who they were. He didn't fight back, didn't yell or use foul language, didn't try to divide or polarize, but simply advocated for loving everyone as humans. That's it. And that's how we do it. Simply loving.
I'm involved in a lot of ministry and often have people ask how to proceed, how do we change hearts, minds, make a difference? We don't. God does that. We are simply called to love. Gay or Straight, Black or White, Rich or Poor, Sick or Healthy, Religious or atheist, whatever other divisions don't matter. First and foremost they are human beings created in the image and likeness of God, and deserve to be treated as such. ** NOTE: I'm not at all saying that you change your beliefs. I'm VERY Catholic, and my friends know that. I don't budge on my church's teachings, and will defend them to the end. I'm simply saying that condemnation is not where we start,** We start by loving.
As I began writing this I found a story about a little girl who died recently, linked here. The little girl says "Love is a superpower. It makes bad people good." YOU GUYS! She was 5! WOW. When I read that I was speechless. Like this 5 year old girl had a better understanding of love than I do. Read Matthew 5:43-48. This is exactly what Jesus says to do,
Imagine this world. Imagine a world where we entered into conversations with another human being as an image of the living God, and treated them like it. What could we learn about God from them? What a unique and beautiful gift is each and every individual. All of them. No matter how the same or how different. Imagine loving them because in spite of the bad you choose to focus on the fact that God thinks they are worthy of love. Image seeing the world with the eyes of God. Imagine how politics, wars, divisiveness and polarization of any kind would slowly disappear. Yes, they would always exist, but how we could start them shrinking today! I know in my life the times God has worked the greatest deeds through me were when I started with love.
I am naive and wide eyed enough to believe that I can change the world. I believe you can too. I believe God wants to, through all of us. What if we just started with love? It's really that simple! Simple doesn't mean easy, but it does mean beautiful.
Dear Reader, Whoever you are, believe me when I say that I love you. You are His, and you are incredible, and I value you. I challenge you reader, love others as well. Love wins. God wins.
Amen.
~ Wanted, Needed, Loved, His ~
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