I was at Shekinah tonight. For those who don’t know, Shekinah is a monthly worship event put on by Hungry For Life that utilizes music and prayer for a passionate encounter with God. It was really good (as always) and during the message tonight, we were challenged to ask God what it is that he wanted us to work on in our lives. His answer to me was: “learn to love.”
The thing that God wants us to do the most, besides love him, is to love other people. (See Matthew 22:34–40 if you don’t believe me.) I’ve been a “Christian” as long as I can remember. I go to church, I listen to Christian music, I read Christian books, I’ve even forsaken a secure salary by answering God’s call in my life to serve him working for a non-profit Christian organization. But I honestly don’t think God cares very much about all of that. What He really wants from me is for me to love him, and to love other people. And the truth is, I suck at loving other people.
Now, it’s not that I hate people. I like people. In fact, part of the problem is that I’m really good at liking people. I’m really good at being nice and friendly and funny and getting along well with people. But that’s not really loving people. What I know that God really wants me to work on is learning how to truly love people. Instead of just smiling and being friendly, to genuinely take a deep interest in their lives, their hopes and dreams, their struggles and failures and their joys and successes. Simply put, to make their lives matter more than my own. And I don’t do that very well at the moment.
So I don’t really know where I’m going with this post, except to say that I want to change. And to initiate that change, I think I just need to admit openly that I know it’s an area I fall short in. My other intention in posting this is that perhaps in reading this, you’ll be challenged as well. What area of your life does God want you to work on?
Hey Ryan, I’ve just read through your blog thus far. Good entries, good topics of discussion and good questions at the end. I appreciate your honesty in this post. It’s so true what you say – I also find it easy to like people, but to love requires a deep investment that costs in many ways.