We are discussing love a lot on Sunday mornings lately.  It was not my original plan but just one of those things that happened.  Plan number one was to talk about some basics of the spiritual life through Labor Day.  A funny thing happened on the way with that agenda.  One idea led to another to where we are on week three of this topic.  Let me go ahead and be honest to say we still don't get it as a general rule.  We talk or sing about love but exhibit very few of its characteristics.  We find it easy to work up a good sweat speaking against social ills but we seem to fail to think about our heart very much.  You can get more than a few amens when speaking on the end times but you will get mostly blank stares talking about relationships. 

Something is comforting when we can point our fingers at other issues in society.  We do enjoy blaming other problems for our current condition.  Jesus said much more about relationships or love than most any other topic we can imagine.  So why do we still settle for relations that trend more toward evil than grace?  Things like abortion, drinking, or being a democrat very seldom if ever cause damage in the congregation.  We mostly just refuse to take scripture serious when it comes to loving others.  Normally our troubles are not from being liberal but from just being lazy.  We look for the easy way out when dealing with others.  Our lives reflect the least common denominator rather than God's call to care.

Caring about other people means thinking about their feelings.  Being blunt is not always a positive trait in human living.  Our focus is more on speaking our view of the truth without it being flavored with love.  People would rather be right in opinions than gentle in relationships.  This happens in families, with friends and among people of faith.  Criticism becomes a common indoor sport among churches.  People live with wounds inflicted by those who do not understand.  Far too much of our attention revolves around personalities and not what is the mission of the church.  Jesus said we should love as He loved.  That may sound so impossible that we just forfeit before we get into the game. 

My hope for people to experience godly relationships is far less than in my idealistic youth.  Years of the reality of dealing with broken people will slowly erode that hope.  I still believe that if true revival were to ever happen it will be anchored in the grace and love of God.  Jesus also said the world would know us by our love.  My fear is that they do know us like that yet find us still yielding more to our human desires than our eternal nature.  Maybe we will someday get real about becoming loving people rather than those who just want to be right.

Bro. Trey