Loving Well

Week Three down. 

This week's topic was entitled "Practical Peace Making And Worldview"

Now, for a lot of us, that tittle can make a stomach crawl. But lucky for you I'm not going to touch much on that. 

I wanna talk about what it means to love people with intention. Not just people close to you, not just the sweet ones in your church, I'm talkin' everybody. 

Easier said than done for sure. We have all heard the verse "love your neighbor as yourself" but can any of us say we really do?

The big one that hit me was my perspective on the issue of poverty and homelessness. We cannot open our eyes to see until we recognize we are blind in someway. I recommend taking 15 minutes and watching this TED Talk "The Danger Of A Single Story" 

I realized after watching this video and discussing in our class, the vast "blinders" I had on my eyes which effected my interpretation of so much.

Anyway, back to the poor. I don't think Jesus was kidding when He told us to care for the poor. There are countless scriptures and letters all pointing us in their direction, but yet we see a homeless man on the street and turn the opposite direction. "Most of us read the gospel as if we have no money and most of us spend our money as if we've never read the gospel"- Abraham Heschel

I don't want to sound like some extremist but honestly Luke 12:33 "sell your possessions and give to the needy..." It sounds pretty clear to me. 

For a lot of us it is very difficult to look suffering straight in the face and like Mother Teresa said "it's not that Christians don't care about the poor, it's just that Christians don't know the poor."

After this week I now see wealth and success differently and don't think I could ever live that way comfortably because if the abundance of someone is contingent on the abundance of another, something is seriously wrong. I want to learn how to see someone through Christ's eyes and how to effectively reach out to those in need all around me. It's just learnin' how to love well. All of this is just getting me more and more excited for Outreach in September. Jesus is doing crazy big things.