Love It

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
Mark 12 (click on the link)


KEY VERSE:
[Jesus answered,] "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your mind and with all your strength.' And here is the second one. 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.' There is no commandment more important than these." (Mark 12:30-31, NIRV)


THE BIG IDEA:
Love and then let the chips fall where they may.


REFLECTIONS:
Happy Valentine’s Day!  I am looking forward to a day full of love wishes and candy and gifts capped with our traditional family candlelight dinner.  Even before we had children Jennifer has shaped up a meatloaf to look like a heart adorned with a lace skirt of mashed potatoes and placed it in the center of a romantic, candlelit table.  This is a weird thing, I know, and it has been going on for over a quarter of a century.  Meatloaf is certainly not high on the list of sexy dishes.  But this has become a symbol of Valentine’s and love and has become a thread of memories that keeps us tightly connected to our past and this journey.

Love is a big deal to God.  When the religious scholar asked Jesus about the most important commandment,  He replied that we should love God with all we’ve got and that we should love others as much as we love ourselves.

There were many years of my life that I measured my success as a Jesus follower sort of like you might keep score on a scavenger hunt.  I tried to be nice, to read my Bible, to pray, to go to Church, to tell people about Jesus, no drinking, no cussing (fairly unsuccessful there), to be fair, to be a good husband, to be a good father, to do good deeds and help others.  Most of the time I felt like a skunk because I just couldn’t keep all of these balls in the air.  At best, I felt stuck in the mud and that I just was too cracked to progress as a Jesus person.

Fortunately for me, Jesus boiled down the whole thing into something simple that I could grasp.  The essence of the Jesus Life is to love God and love others.  Everything else is secondary.   Connecting with this idea has been so freeing and life changing.  If I want to improve my relationship with Jennifer, love.  If I want to be a better dad, love.  If I want to draw closer to Jesus, love.  Love, love, love and all of the details that used to consume me just fall into place.


POINT OF ACTION:
I use a simple idea to keep me on track.  In everything that I do, I try to consider if love is at the root of it.  If it is not, I know that I am on the wrong course and I try to adjust accordingly.


WHO AM I?
I am Guy Draper.  I have been married to Jennifer, my high school sweetheart, for nearly 24 years.  We have three children:  Jed (14), Olive-Anne (4) and Lottie (4) and they will all eat that meatloaf if they like it or not!  Love?