Loving Others
“Let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.” Proverbs 3:3-4
I’ve been thinking lately about the importance of loving people; specifically, the person or people right in front of me. I think often times the Christian life gets a little muddy with all of the burdens this world can present, and all of the tasks and jobs we get wrapped up in. Often times, I forget why I’m doing what I do, and I lose sight of the simplicity of the Christian walk.
I think the Lord has lovingly reminded over the past several weeks that in reality, it really boils down to loving the person right in front of me; something that is so simple, but so difficult, and entirely impossible without Christ.
But what does it mean to love the person right in front of me? And if this is so simple, why is it so difficult?
Loving the person right in front of me means I enjoy their company and companionship. It means I take time to listen to their struggles, and to be vulnerable enough to share my own. It means sticking in the frying pan with them as they stumble. It means being humble enough around them to put myself beneath them, even if I don’t see things the way they do. It means protecting them and defending them in my thought life, even though it would be much easier to criticize and be bitter beneath the surface. It means I am eager to be inconvenienced in order to serve them. It means I adjust my own priorities in order to accommodate theirs.
I think the Lord has used a lot of different things to ruffle my feathers and help me see the depravity in my own life when it comes to loving people. It’s been a pretty stern blow to my pride to see how short I come in terms of genuinely loving others. But thankfully we serve a God of resurrection, and when we fall, we can stand right back up free of the guilt and shame that can so easily accompany failure.
