Love In Action

Year 6-Day 58: Today, I am grateful love is an action verb.

We must learn to not just speak words of love, but to act on them. Actions speak louder than words... and the to love in truth is to put others before ourselves. So counter-culture...  so Jesus. 

Years ago, we did a Willow Creek program called "Flipped". I didn't want to do it, because it used a video and I thought kids already spent too much time in front of the TV, but the team as a whole prayed and trusted that it was where we were being led that year. 

Wow! What a wonderful surprise it turned out to be. Some of the video still haunt my memory, and many days I have no idea where I parked my car. They were good. We all got flipped.

My favorite video was challenging for me, as I enjoy fashion and shoes. A teen girl told the story of showing up to youth group and discovering that there was a need for shoes. There were some who had none. It was an urgent need. The leader asked, "Who in this group would be willing to give up their shoes to meet someone's need?". 

The teen telling the story was wearing her favorite purple shoes. They may have even sparkled or shined. I understood favorite shoes. She wrestled with the decision, but in the end... she added her shoes to the pile. The sacrifice become freeing and created a sense of joy inside of her that she barely understood. We hold so tight to things, but love happens in actions and in truth. She chose to love as Jesus loved, and it filled her with something better than fabulous purple shoes. 

"Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth." 1 John 3:18

John, the Beloved not the Baptist, penned the Johns in the back of your Bible. I believe most of "the Johns" were written in his later years in his ministry in Ephesus, but I don't know for sure. 1 John, especially, included important things he would want them to remember before leaving them. 

One Biblical scholar, Bob Utley, notes that 1 John is more of an "Impassioned Office Memo from Headquarters" than a personal letter. It is not addressed to specific people, but could be written to each on of us today. It is ultimately, God's word and John is just his scribe. 

The lesson in 1 John 3 help us to love Him and each other better. When your read it, don't forget to pause at the semi-colons to really reflect on what it means and how the thought after it connects. So much to learn in such a short passage. 

What "purple shoes" do I need to surrender in love? 

Today, I am grateful love is an action verb.