How to Love God

The greatest commandment is to love God and love others. But how do you do that? It's relativly easy to love others, I mean, they're right there. But how do you love God when He's intangible and far away?

Let's start by looking at how you love the people around you. This may be your spouse, your significant other, a really close family member, or that friend who's always been there for you.

These last few weeks, I've realized that I'm actually loving my girlfriend of 10 years more. Out of that love, I've started to be more affectionate towards her. There are moments where I just want to hug her and hold her close. Or times where I just want to kiss her. And times when I think about her and smile. All these actions and reactions come from the feeling deep down in my heart that screams, "I love you!"

Beyond affection, there's the things that you do for the people you love. You sit and listen to them when they've had a hard day. You have meals together and engage each other. You do stuff for them when it's inconvenient for you. You make sacrifices for them. All because you love them and you want what's best for them.

Sometimes you have to do things you don't like. Like confront them about a bad habit. Or not spoil your child because you want them to grow up valuing what they have.

So if that's how you love someone close to you, how do you love God? How about loving someone NOT close to you?

Jesus said, "'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'" (Matthew 25:40, ESV)

Jesus also said, "'For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'" (Matthew 25:35-36, ESV)

Now, wouldn't you do that for someone you loved? Feed them when they're hungry, give them water when they're thirsty, clothe them when they're cold or naked, visit them when their sick or in prison? Isn't that love too?

And since we can't do these things directly to God, because He's intangible, isn't it convenient that there are all these people in the world who can receive it in his stead? So, by loving others, we're loving God. Which makes sense, because that's part of the great commandment, to love God and love others. In other words, it's the same thing.

I know that I love God, but I don't love others nearly enough. I also know that I want to love God more, so I should love others more. And that love that we have for others isn't some obligation, but a reaction to that feeling that wells up inside of us. Since God's not tangible hear for us to direct those feelings towards, we direct it to the people around us. Specifically, the people who need it the most.

So, go out there and love God by loving the people around you. Especially the people that really need it.

Requests and Updates for 10/16/08

Requests
==
+ That I would rely on God, not myself, thus, not stressing myself out
+ Faith and trust that LA is the place for my future
+ I finish that paper

Updates
==
It's been a hard few weeks. Tons of work and stress. Even though I went on a brief vacation, I came back to a ton of stress.

LA was fantastic. You can see a few pics here: http://www.ninjavspenguin.com/blog/2008/10/11/la-day-1/

I can definitely see myself out there. And in many ways, I'm actually looking forward to moving out there. I don't know if it's just because I have some great friends in LA or that it's just different than the NYC metro area, but I'm okay with it.

I also have my first late assignment for school. I had a paper due on Tuesday and it's still in draft stages. It's only worth 10% of the grade, so I'm not terribly worried. But what I realized, was I was obsessing over getting it perfect or at least an A. It's been a long while since I've done anything like that. But as a result, I got really stressed out to the point of near panic and just froze. I had the time to do it, but I just kept distracting myself so I wouldn't have to think about it.

As I look forward to the future, there's still a lot of uncertainty. Even the 2011 plan M and I had is most likely out the window. I'm not really looking forward to a 2013 plan, so it may end up being a 2009 plan? I don't know, we haven't really talked about it yet.

I went to the first Metro small group on Wednesday and it was an interesting experience. I feel awkward in these groups sometimes because I don't want to take over. I also don't want to end up just teaching either. But it was only the first week, so we'll see where that takes me.

Work is time consuming. I'm responsible for uploading the weekly podcasts, responding to some communications cards, doing the presentation on Sundays, working on the new website, working on the branding, and sometimes breaking down the gear on Sundays after service. It's a lot to do amidst all the other school work.

Even though I've slipped a little bit, I know that God will help bring me back. And things will work out.