Today, I'm going to challenge you to do something for only one twenty-four hour period of your entire life. It’s will be tough to the point of painful, aggravating to the point insanity, and it's so amazingly beautiful it can transform the rest of your life. There is no cost, no obligation, and no credit card required. No credit or background check is necessary.
- Look at the clock and note the time.
- Now, for the next twenty-four hours do everything as an act of love.
- If you fail to act out of anything but love... begin the clock again.
- After you successfully complete the 24 hours motivated by love, take a few minutes and look back at your day...
What happened? Who did you become? A better person than existed only 25 hours before?
As a Christian, I must take my brothers and sisters in Christ to task on this matter. We perform the rituals accorded to us as the "spiritual disciplines" of our faith, almost always in strict agreement with the prescribed doctrine of our denomination.
Lutherans commit "through grace by faith" to their spiritual memory,
Catholics affirm the Apostolic creed and perform the Sacraments.
Evangelicals get "born again"
Praise Jesus!
They all attend worship services fairly regularly, they tithe, and perform some good works to demonstrate their sincerity of belief. They attend Bible studies and regurgitate the same tired platitudes, although slightly revised for each generations consumption. The results are a tolerable sense of being accepted, being better, and being "saved". Hallelujah!
That's OK, it's great, and it's all you need. It’s the D- Grade you need to "Pass". It keeps you out of the fire, and grateful for the blood of Jesus. Amen and Amen!
That's OK, it's great, and it's all you need. It’s the D- Grade you need to "Pass". It keeps you out of the fire, and grateful for the blood of Jesus. Amen and Amen!
That's awesome! And it's wholly insufficient. What about the love?
You're right back in the time that Jesus entered the world. The priests were tending to the rituals, performing the sacrifices, the people were observing the (letter of the) Law, but where was the love? They had all forgotten that the very spirit of the Law was Love.
"They praise Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me." - Matt. 15:8
They are doing the right things for all the wrong reasons. Does that remind you of anyone you know, someone close to you? Oh, damn, that someone is you.
Ok, you have a big question mark hanging over your head. What's this have to do with homelessness? Right? I understand that you don't get it. Connect the dots. If we all acted out of love, there would be no homeless. I know that doesn't seem realistic, but if you, just you, do all things in love, you will single-handedly reduce the fear, hate, suspicion, pity and all other non-love motives that others have regarding the homeless and everything else that plagues us.
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