Where's the Love?

In this world full of social media where it seems that so many of us have more interaction with a computer screen than with actual living, breathing human beings, we can find ourselves becoming detached and no longer relating to real people. A computer cannot love us back. The twelve people that have “liked” your status may not be people you even talk to face to face. We have become extremely consumed with watching the funniest videos on someone’s thread, or finding the most sarcastic sayings to laugh about with our friends, and commenting on a person’s status that “I’m praying for you,” while never actually doing so because we are so “busy.” Facebook says we have 950 friends and twitter says we have 100 followers, but at the end of the day, how many real and true friends do we actually have? How many people can we say that we have shown the love of Christ to each and every day? How many opportunities to share His love do we pass up in the name of convenience and trying to keep up with our schedules?

Just speaking for myself, I must admit that I have missed MANY opportunities.

When asked what the greatest commandment in the Law was, Jesus said, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22: 36-40 NIV)

We say that we love God, and then in the same breath we announce our lack of love for people. We’re so busy talking about people and judging people’s actions or what we think their motives might be, that we don’t stop to think about what that person is going through or what their life might be like. Perhaps if we took just a moment before we make assumptions about another person to consider our own imperfections, then it might make a difference in how we view them. Maybe if we would stop to remember that Jesus Christ paid the same price for our sin as He did for theirs, and that His love for them is no different than His love for us, then it might make a difference in how we love them.

We all have faced trials and we all have gone through storms in our lives. We all have messed up, and some still face the consequences of those mistakes. We have all fallen at some point in some way, and have had to have help getting back up…help from other people…help from our Savior. If God loves me in spite of all of my shortcomings and all of my failures, who am I to withhold love from other people? Who am I to say that I don’t have time to be there for them when they need me? Who am I to assume that I know their circumstance well enough to say anything about it? The words of the old hymn ring so true, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me….I once was lost, but now I’m found; was blind, but now I see…”

It was God’s grace that saved me, a sinner – not good enough to deserve any of His favor, and yet He saved me. He looked beyond the marred lump of clay that I was, and He saw me as something beautiful that could be molded and shaped into something that would bring Him glory. He saw me, not as I was, but as I would be. What would happen if we looked deeper to see the potential people have and loved them like Jesus? What would happen if we laid down our weapons of gossip and suspicion, of lies and hate, of judgment and cruelty, of cynicism and envy; and if instead we wrapped our arms around a hurting person? I’ll tell you what would happen…the world would be changed, lives would be transformed, and God would be glorified.

It’s time that we love each other like Jesus.