Cross that ocean

Jesus said it this way...

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself." (Luke 10:27)

this way...

"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." (Matt. 16: 2)

like this...

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Cor. 13: 13)

and in so many other ways.

It's human nature to be self-centered and self-serving. What will this person do for me? How will this relationship serve to better me? Will I gain anything for helping in this situation? And here in America that in-born nature is confirmed by the culture in which we live.

But Jesus turned that kind of love upside-down. He modeled a love that is never self-seeking. He stopped, He looked, and He loved.

Some of us never get to the point of stopping; we are too busy or our eyes are too inward focused. Some of us stop but we don't look. Even the act of stopping is to fulfill a purpose; a purpose for self not for others. If we don't look we don't have to see and if we don't see we don't have to feel guilty for not loving. Some of us look but the need is too great or too risky or too time-consuming. So we go on.

It is so hard to stop, and look, and love. Could we be taken advantage of? Yes. Could we be hurt? Yes. Could it look like it ends in failure? Yes. Could it take up a lot of our time? Yes. It's not about what we gain. It's not even about what we lose. It's about what we give.

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15: 12 - 13)

If you need me, I hope you'll find me crossing that ocean or hiking that mountain.