Today’s Post By: Rae Lynn DeAngelis
I recently shared about my visit to Bruceton, Tennessee but didn’t say why we were there. My husband, brother, sister-in-law, and I were helping move some family members into their newly purchased home.
When we first walked into the house, we were a little overwhelmed. You could see that the home had potential, but it was going to take some hard work before it would be livable.
We spent the first couple of days cleaning. We scrubbed cabinets, mopped floors, wiped down trim, and sanitized walls. The property had been occupied by renters previously and was in pretty bad shape. In addition to grease and grime covering every surface of the home, many repairs needed to be made. We girls scrubbed, washed, and sanitized with just about every cleaning product imaginable, while the guys worked on the electrical, plumbing, and maintenance repairs. With a little bit of love and some serious elbow grease, new life appeared from the wreckage. By the end of the weekend we were exhausted, but our investment of time and hard work paid off.
Sometimes a restoration project is not a home, but a living breathing person.
Have you ever had someone walk into your life and you knew from the onset that any kind of affiliation with them was going to take a lot of work? Maybe they had baggage from a previous relationship, or were struggling with addiction. Maybe their finances were in disarray or their health and peace of mind were in serious disrepair. Regardless of the situation, you just knew in the very core of your being that you were supposed to somehow someway reach out and love them.
Love… what does that really mean?
Depending on context, the word can mean many different things, at least in our culture today. In the good old USA we tend to throw around the word as an acronym for just everything that suits our fancy… I love that song… or I love that restaurant. Perhaps enjoy or like is better wording.
Love (the kind that God reveals through Jesus Christ and calls us to all aspire towards) is different from the world’s concept of love.
What is love according to God’s definition?
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (1 John 3:16)
“Love is ascribing worth to another at the cost to yourself.” ~Greg Boyd
What a profound explanation! Love is not a noun or adjective; it’s a verb.
When God sends someone into our lives that needs a little tender loving care, He is not calling us to a feeling. He is calling us to an action. That’s what agape love is—love in action. And yes, agape love, the kind that God esteems, is always going to cost us something.
But here’s the good news. The return on our investment will also reap astronomical dividends, incalculable this side of heaven.
When Jesus says, come follow me, He is really saying, come be like me. Walk like me, talk like me, and love like me.
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25)
Is God is calling you to ascribe worth to another at cost to yourself? Perhaps now is the time for you to make an investment.
Let the restoration begin.
