Each Day Already is a Challenge

Spread the Love

When I logged on today, my devotional from Jason Mitchener was waiting in my inbox. I've written about him before. He's confined to a wheelchair and breathes with the help of a machine, but he has a ministry - devotionals that he tries to send out daily, if his health allows. He could be angry about his situation. Instead he allows God to use him in mighty ways. And he's full of God's love and joy. I admire that. And...I have to admit that the messages I receive are usually just what I need to hear on any particular day.

Today his devotional was titled, "Love is a verb." I've used that title myself.

As you might remember, at the beginning of the month I spouted off about Valentine's Day. I do think that far too many men (and women, most likely) spend their days without showing much love at all to spouses and family members. Then they buy a box of candy or a bouquet of flowers and present it to their loved one(s) expecting that all will be well and forgiven for the next year. I'm one who would much rather have a few clues throughout the year that there is love in the house.

Anyway, back to Jason's devotional. He used 1 John 3:18 as his reference: "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." That's what I'm talking about.

Of course, Jason mentioned how God showed love to us in a huge way by sending His Son to die for us on the cross. And he mentioned that Christ loved us so much that He showed it in a huge way by dying on that cross for us. Wow.

When I became a parent, I started to realize - in a mini-version, I know - the love that God has for us. No parent wants thier children to be hurt, and we'll usually do anything to make sure they are not.

But it was even more recently that I realized what real love Dad and Son both showed. One year, just before Good Friday, I read the words of a medical doctor about what would have happened to Jesus that day and I was brought to tears. I had never really considered the pain He would have felt.

Then, the only time I ever went to the movies alone was in Michigan when I was living with my elderly parents. I saw The Passion of the Christ. The movie theater was packed like I had never seen before. And since I had forgotten to bring along a few tissues, I stopped in a dollar store before going to the theater. Many of those around me had forgotten their tissues, so I passed my box down the aisle. By the end of the movie, the tissue box was almost empty.

Yeppers. That's real love. It makes showing love to the world seem like a pretty simple task. We may have to come out of our comfort zones to do that, but we don't have to suffer physically.

I guess that's how I would like to see us use Valentine's Day. It should not be meant as an easy way for us to make up for the fact that we ignore our loved ones all year long and suddenly have a way to make up for that. Rather, it should be a way that we can hug the world around us.

So...today, I'm hugging my fellow WDC members.

Oh yeah...and here is some candy



and here are some flowers



...just in case I have not shown enough love...or need to make up for neglecting you.