In Service To part 4
Either way, Christ's love controls us. No matter what we do, it comes from the central idea of love. Because either we believe we don't have it, and will do anything we can think of (looking for love in all the wrong places) to get it... or we know and believe that God loves us and we do everything we do in order to share it. Think about it: Approval, acceptance, belonging, these are the things that we crave most. And when we think we can't have these things, that's when we turn to cheap substitutes. Money, career, basicaly material possessions. And let me make this clear: I think its ok to have stuff. The problem comes when stuff has you. Remember the rich young ruler? He didn't want to sell everything he had. He wasn't willing to let go of it. And if your hands are full of stuff, you can't really catch any blessings. (As a quick aside, I think way too often we equate the word "blessing" with "money." I think it CAN encompass that, but doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it.) Let me say what I think I'm trying to say: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24). We're either trying to GET something, or we know we HAVE something and we GIVE what we've GOT. But either way we WILL serve a master. Either way, Christ's love controls us. I know I already said that, but I think sometimes we learn best through repetition. So we DO live in service to love. One way or the other. Trying to get something, or giving away what we've got. That's what life is. And a lot of the time we get twisted around and distracted and we let other things take places of importance in our lives. But when you get down to the nitty gritty... its all about love. And the only life worth living--the only way to truly live this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life--is a life of love. Loving God by loving people. Loving God because He first loved us. Receiving and releasing the love that we have already been given. See, living a life in service to love is not about trying to get love. Its about understanding that we already have love. We are loved. We are love. And then letting what's inside come out. Living a life of service to each other. "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves" (Philippians 2:3). And I don't think that means we need to think we're not as good as anybody else. Being humble doesn't mean thinking less of yourself. It simply means thinking of yourself less. Taking care of others rather than worrying so much about taking care of yourself. Its the difference between being selfish and being selfless. Being self-centered, or being Christ-centered. And understanding that being Christ-centered is being people-centered. Whatever we do unto the lowest of them we do unto Him, right? So serving God is really about serving people. Just like Jesus did when He washed His disciples' feet. He didn't come to be served. He came to serve. To give us everything we would ever need so that WE could serve. He gave us His Holy Spirit. The love receptor. So that we could receive and release His love. Let God love us and love each other with that same love. That's what a life in service to love is. That's what life IS. And that's what its all about!