deepbrew

God has been teaching me things lately.  He’s been showing me that the most important thing in the world is loving him (Jesus) and loving people.  Of course this is one of the foundational things we’ve been taught since we were babies, but somehow it’s one of those things that is easy not to do.

I’m always evaluating the way I relate to people.  Sometimes it seems very difficult to attain satisfactory “performance” in the way I “handle” people.  I get very frustrated with this at times.  And of course there are lots of people in my life that I wish would change, that I wish would start caring more about certain things, and less about certain other things.

Helping people is the #1 calling of Christians, as I understand the gospel.  And the primary way we are to help people is to help them find the grace and purpose of God for their lives and align themselves with that grace and purpose.  To get to this place requires change, for most all of us, and for most all the people we care about.

But pressuring people to make changes in their lives is almost always a disaster.  We hate when people do it to us, and other people hate when we do it to them.  Getting people to change and conform to the way we think they ought to live is very difficult, and probably the most persistent problem people-helpers face.

God is showing me that I need to quit trying to change people.  Stop.  Cease.  Desist.

My job is very simple.  Love them.

Love with every ounce of love that God gives  Love sacrificially.  Love kindly. Love earnestly.
Love being with people.  Enjoy them!  Delight in them!  Listen to them, and treat every word they say with utmost respect.

One of my favorite people in the whole world is Menno Kinsinger, my neighbor and an outstanding brother in our church.  He is one of those people who warmly claps me on the shoulder and gives a kind greeting whenever we meet.  Yesterday in church during testimony time he spontaneoously sang a song (very unusual in our church).  This man loves the Lord, and loves everyone he meets, and everyone loves Menno.

Menno tells a very moving story about a time when he was on the brink of “giving up on it all,” a time of deep despair and rebellion, from what I understand.  He was a teenager; the year was 1951.  One day after church he was standing out in the church yard thinking morose thoughts about his life, when someone laid a big warm hand on his shoulder and spoke kindly.  “Menno, how are you doing?”  For Menno, that was the Turning Point.  His life took a decided turn for the better, and ever since I’ve known him he has been the kind of person that gives just this sort of encouragement to everyone he meets.  It’s an amazing little episode.  Love is so powerful.

Menno has since placed a stone in the ground at the spot where this life-changing encouragement happened.  I was up in that church yard this afternoon, and took a picture of it.

The Turning Point: 1951.

Love as Christ loves.  This is what I want to do in 2007.  So help me God.

Happy New Year!