LIVING LOVE

I have been reflecting a lot lately about “living love.”  This came about from recently reading two books by author, motivational speaker, and lawyer, Bob Goff.  The books I am referring to are Everybody Always and Love Does which I encourage you to read.  The books consist of short chapters that are engaging stories from Bob’s experiences of loving others.

Goff includes his email and phone number in his books because he wants to “live love” and be available to anyone who might be in need.  I think it is important to let other people know how they influence and effect our lives.  Sharing this encouragement can help people realize how important their lives are to us.

 

With reading Goff’s books, I can’t help but think of the two greatest commandments that Jesus shares with us:

And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  –Matthew 22:35-40  (ESV)

 

The “love” in these verses, in Greek, is the “agape” form of love.  Agape love is a benevolent, sacrificial, active, serving love – not a “feeling” love.  Love is a verb in this case.

 

 

When I correspond with my coworkers via email, I try to be friendly and include a heartfelt, “Have a nice day” or different greeting to help brighten their day.  I have found that little greeting helps break down walls, and people become friendlier. A smile came to my face recently when I got a work email that said, “I always appreciate what you say in your emails. Your choice of words are:  kind, sweet and nice.”

Learning some stories from a coworker’s life recently made me see a great connection with both Goff’s books and these two greatest commandments; how this man is living love.

This particular gentleman, that emails me almost daily with work detail, brightens my day with his well wishes as we exchange words of encouragement especially to “stay safe and healthy” during these COVID times.  Our conversations have expanded through the last few weeks to include happenings in our lives.  How nice it is to be friendly, learn other’s stories and offer a word or two of encouragement when we can.  Kindness matters and can go a long way to bless another.

 

Photo courtesy of BK under Creative Commons License (CC BY-SA 2.0)

 

Experiences this gentleman has had this past week made me reflect on how I see him fulfilling Jesus’ two greatest commandments and living love that Goff shares in his books.

 

Despite the difficult situations he found himself in, he lived love and loved his “neighbor” by…

…stopping as he saw a tragic event unfold and realized what happened

…sharing what he witnessed

…staying with an animal that was dying

…taking a neighbor to the ER due to a fall earlier in the day

…making sure another neighbor would be taken care of because of the one neighbor being in the hospital

…assisting a neighbor who had a stroke back in December

…rescuing and caring for an abandoned dog he saw at the post office

…being available via phone for the neighbor in the ER who wanted to keep in touch with him

 

I shared with him that despite the trying circumstances he found himself immersed in, I saw God using his compassion and kindness in the different sequence of events. He indeed loved his neighbor as himself, whether he knew them personally or not, because of his love for God.

 

Photo courtesy of Rick Warden under Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

 

Reading Goff’s books has inspired me to want to live out that love with everybody always.  On one hand it seems it is hard to do that because we might think our lives are so simple and ordinary.

 

Thanks to this coworker sharing his experiences with me, I am reminded that living love out each moment by moment takes many shapes and forms…

…the simple, “Have a nice day” in an email can start a ripple effect of love and goodness

…sharing compassion and kindness with another person or animal is important

…sending a text to someone letting them know you are thinking of them and praying for them can bring a smile to their face

…sharing the Christ in us can be as simple as holding a door open for someone

…sharing kind words with people is living love too!

 

Photo courtesy of BK under Creative Commons License (CC BY-SA 2.0)

 

Be encouraged this week to…

keep living love,

sharing the Christ that is in you with others,

in whatever capacity you have.

With living love, you are fulfilling Jesus’ greatest commandments!

What a wonderful purpose as we live day by day on this earth until the good Lord calls us home.

 

Let all that you do be done in love.  –1 Corinthians 16:14  (ESV)

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.  –1 Corinthians 13:13  (NLT)

We love because he first loved us.  –1 John 4:16  (NIV)