Putting a Face On

11.2.2009

Mark 12:33 33 “…and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” New American Standard Bible

Really rotten religion turns into real relationship when we put a face on it – the Bible says so right here in Mark 12. Too often we want to be right and tight with God while wanting to put distance in between us and the people who so irritate and annoy us with the stupid things they say and do. (Funny, they’re doing the same thing to us; we just don’t know it because all of us hide behind the “I’m right and tight with God” façade so well…) Love may be a many splendored thing, but it’s also messy, difficult, and makes us extremely vulnerable to deep pain and dreadful disappointment.

I admit it, I’d like to ignore people sometimes but God calls me on it right here in Mark 12. I am to love as He loves and accept as He accepts. I’m to cherish as He cherishes because to score points with God is to keep His commandments and He commands me to love my neighbor as myself and to turn dead religion into loving relationships by doing just that.

Father in Heaven,

You command, I obey. None of us are perfect and none of us is any more than desperately sick and deeply flawed. So I ask for the grace to give my religion a face and to love others as You love them. May I learn in Christ to be brave and resolute in following Your every command, and to do what really pleases You despite the difficulty and distastefulness of it – I pray in His Name, amen.