love

I think we all have the ability to change the world in one way or another, each and everyday. We have the ability to smile at someone who looks sad, to hug someone who is having a tough time, to send an email or an sms to someone who needs a friend, we have the ability to love – and yet we don’t. We get caught up in our day-to-day lives that we forget to stop and love.

I think its odd how people think that their only way of expressing “love” to people is through charities, and in giving money – yet we are all guilty of this right? I’ll be completely honest, I constantly find myself avoiding people and instantly judging the people around me, yet people say that i’m a really “friendly” person. Sure, in the perfect surroundings we’re all friendly people, but its when we are out of our comfort zones that our true loving nature is revealed.

At my school, there used to be a little motivational poster in every classroom, to remind us of little things we often forgot, i remember reading one during some class about being left out. Every time i was in that room, i read it because every word made me realise the reality of the statement. Funnily enough, i can’t remember the exact words of it, but it was something like – “the biggest diseases of our world are not cancer, or heart disease, but rather being forgotten, being left out, being unwanted, being unloved.” And it’s 100 percent true. Physical diseases are big in our world, but emotional diseases are so much bigger. In our daily lives, we come across thousands of people; in the shopping centre, at work, on the street, but how many of us actually stop concentrating on ourselves and look around at these people. How many of us have given them a flicker of hope simply through the way we love?

We talk about “being like Jesus” but we are so unbelievably far from that. I think that as Christians, sometimes we have this mind-set, that because we’ve given our lives to God, we’ve done it all. I mean as long as I’ve recieved what i need, theres no need to give right? Wrong. Completely wrong. In this selfish world we live in, we take, take, take but never give. It’s so funny how we forget to love, but without any hesitation we preach and preach over people.

Jesus taught us how to love. He came down to this filthy world we live in to teach us how to love, and inevitably show us just how much he loved us – by dying the most excruciating death for our salvation. However, through his death he wanted us to realise the intensity of his love, and somehow reciprocate it to those who are hurting. He chose us to share his love – what an awesome responsibility, and yet how many of us can honestly say we’ve taken it seriously?

One thing I struggle with, is remembering that God loves the person next to me just as much as he loves me. He doesn’t love them less, he doesn’t frown upon them – he LOVES them, just as much as he loves me. Wow. I honestly struggle with that, can anyone relate? I so often make judgements based on the way a certain person acts or dresses, but God loves that person. He loves them, and has chosen us to show them that love. When people are hurt, they hurt people, but God uses us as his tools to lead these broken people back to the one who first loved them. He has chosen us, to reveal his love to them.

It only takes one person to make an effort in someones life to see a transformation begin. We were all called to love. Every one of us can change the world simply by the way we love.