Thursday, February 16, 2012

That was me...

"Then he will turn to the 'goats,' the ones on his left, and say, 'Get out, worthless goats! You're good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why? Because—
   I was hungry and you gave me no meal,
   I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
   I was homeless and you gave me no bed,
   I was shivering and you gave me no clothes,
   Sick and in prison, and you never visited.'
Then those 'goats' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn't help?'
He will answer them, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.' "
                                  Matthew 25:42-45

That phrase "someone who was being overlooked or ignored" gnaws at me.  I'm pretty good at overlooking people.  I am especially good at it when the "overlooked ones" are lazy or dirty or just not my "type" of person.  If I'm brutally honest, people have to deserve my help before I'm excited about giving it to them.  Before you judge me, admit with me for a moment that when you see someone waste the help they've been given, you don't exactly look forward to helping them again.

Imagine my surprise when Christ reminds me that it is not just the deserving he expects me to help.  Anyone who is hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison---anyone being overlooked or ignored---they are the ones I am called to feed, host, cover, serve, and visit.  "I don't want to," I tell Him.  "You don't have to want to," he replies (oh dear, he SO borrowed that line off of my Dad!!).

I'm not sure what this is supposed to look like in my life, but I am sure of one thing...I want to spend my days figuring it out because I know that I know that I know that I never want to hear Christ say to me, "That was me---you failed to do it to me".

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

I love him.

On this Valentine's Day, I'm feeling grateful...
...for a man who loves me, who doesn't ever lie to me, who is FUN, who thinks of me before himself, who loves Jesus with all of his heart, who is a fantastic Dad, who is passionate (about me and other things..haha!), who is MINE

...and yet, I'm also grateful that I don't need him to live, that he reminds me that if something were to happen to him, I would be okay, that he is not my Savior even though I sometimes mistakenly think of him this way

It's a great feeling, this fantastic love that points me to the love of a Savior who I DO need to live

My loverboy, modeling his duct tape tie from Isaac