There was a moment today when my attention focused to tonight.  It turned out be a long week with college, shopping, grass fires and the like.  Guess you didn't know about the grass fire since it happened on Friday afternoon.  Some power lines went nuts in the heat which caused sparks to fall in my yard.  Now my once green grass is a nice shade of black.  That was enough excitement to last me for awhile.  My original point was my looking forward to this time to stop and catch my breath.  Today went well so there is at least a content feeling now.  My body hurts but that is constant at my age it seems.  Walking and jogging ten miles in four days probably also helped with the aches. 

Our focus today was learning how to love as Jesus loved.  It was a follow up on what we talked about last Sunday.  I wrote on Thursday how trying to say more on a previous topic can be hard.  You are always tempted to mimic your earlier efforts.  Seems like that tendency was avoided today.  Emphasizing a different aspect of this idea carried its own weight to the process.  The point is that we do need to learn to love as scripture commands.  Divine love is not something natural to a human being.  Our usual approach is to look no further than our own needs or wants in relationships.  Odds are good that being serious about learning to love will come with pain.  We will need to unlearn some ideas that damage us in the past, present and future tense.  Putting our new insight into practice will also come with some discomfort.  Moving from self serving to living out the heart of God may sound simple but it is not ever easy.

God reveals His love for us in Jesus.  The old song still rings true that "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so."  He lays down His life in order for us to discover what true love or grace is all about.  Most church people would answer yes if asked if they would give their life for even those they may not particularly like.  It does sound like the right answer for us.  The problem is that laying our life down is not just a one time experience.  This is a priority for everyday living.  We have to allow God to sever us from being selfish each day we live.  Only when we realize His love can we begin to share it with anyone.  Maybe what we consider to be love for those in our group is only a sense of being secure with people like us.  We confuse loving others with feeling safe with our type of people.

God loves the world so much that He gave the Son away.  He still loves us as individuals.  It comes natural to Him.  We will probably need to overcome self inflicted obstacles in order to even imagine loving others with that type of grace.  Can it really be done?  A better question is can we afford to miss out on receiving or giving that love to self and others?

Bro. Trey