Love Even When...
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Why is it that repairs never seem to be needed when we just happen to have some extra cash on hand? Instead they happen when we have no extra funds available. Why is it that our car always breaks down in the worst location: like the basement of an underground parking garage with ceilings too low for a tow truck to enter. Why is it that when you take your car to the garage it no longer is making that funny noise you kept hearing all week long?
Why is it that the a/c always stops working on the hottest
day of the year and the heat stops working on the coldest day of the year? Why
is it that kids never get sick at a convenient time? Both of our boys would be
happy and bouncing around all day long and then around midnight they would come
into our room to let us know that they are sick.
Why is it that someone always needs my help on the one day
that I finally had nothing to do all day long? The day that I was going to get
some of that work around the house done. Why is it that the Internet goes out
just as the new season of Longmire came on Netflix?
Life is filled with inconveniences. What we do and how we
respond during those inconvenient moments says a lot about us. Knowing that you
will be inconvenienced, like when a wreck closes Forest Drive during rush hour,
you can actually prepare yourself for how inconveniences will impact your life
and those around you. And, as with everything else, Jesus is our example.
Love Can Be Inconvenient
In John 4, we see that Jesus and His disciples traveled from
Judea to Galilee, which was about 70 miles and took about 2.5 days to walk.
During their travel, they went through Samaria and stopped in a town to eat.
The disciples went on ahead to get something to eat, but Jesus stopped at a
well and had an encounter with a Samaritan woman that would change the lives of
many in that town.
When the disciples returned to Jesus, they worried that He
had not eaten all day, choosing instead to spend the entire afternoon talking
to this Samaritan woman.
31 In the meantime
the disciples kept urging Him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But He
said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”
33 The
disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought Him something to
eat?”
34 “My food
is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His
work,” Jesus told them. 35 “Don’t you say,
‘There are still four more months, then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m
telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, for they are
ready for harvest. (John 4:31-35, HCSB)
Jesus spent His time ministering to the spiritual needs of
this woman and the disciples could only see how inconvenient it was that Jesus
did not have time to eat and rest. Jesus explains to them that He was doing
something that was far more satisfying than getting food for his belly. He was
satisfied because He had been doing the will of God and that led to a life
changing experience for many people in that town.
Inconveniences Can Be
an Opportunity
15 Pay
careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as
wise— 16 making the most of the time, because
the days are evil. (Galatians 5:15-16, HCSB)
Rather than focusing on the inconvenient interruptions in
your life, plan to use them to find ways to share love with others.
When the person in front of you in the checkout line is
rummage through their pockets to find a few dollars more to pay for their food,
offer to pay the extra and let them know that Jesus teaches us to love others.
When your child is sick in the middle of the night and you
rush to the ER, take time to thank the doctors and nurses for working the
graveyard shift so that they can help people just like you. If they seem to
have time to chat, invite them to church or let them know you will be praying
for them.
When a snowstorm closes everything, and you find yourself at
home with your children that are bouncing off the walls, use that opportunity
to have fun with them. Spend the day teaching them to cook, or play board
games, or play with their favorite toys, or play dress up and have a tea party,
or let them teach you how to play a video game. Use the opportunity to get
closer to your children.
Use every inconvenience as an opportunity to connect or
reconnect with others, to show love toward them, to share a kind word or deed,
etc. Love can be inconvenient, but inconveniences can also be opportunities to
share that love.
Jesus is the perfect example that there is never a time that
is too difficult or too inconvenient to let God use you. While Jesus was hanging
on the cross, struggling to even breath, He took the time to tell the thief
beside Him the good news. There is never an inconvenience that cannot be used
to tell others about God.
The Real Inconvenient
Truth
Whether or not you agree with his science or the political
viewpoints of Al Gore, one thing we can all agree on is that his movie An
Inconvenient Truth started a lot of conversations around the country. I never
saw the movie, but I have heard it mentioned and quoted numerous times. The
main idea is that there is never a convenient time for global problem that
could be devastating.
Regardless of what happens to the planet around us, billions
of people that are now living will eventually die and discover that God is
real. They will learn that what those crazy preachers told them was true. They
will either find themselves in an eternal destination that they were prepared for or one that they were surprised with: Heaven or Hell.
God’s original plan was for us to live in a perfect place
for all of eternity. A paradise where He would come and walk among us in the
cool of the evening, just as He did with Adam and Eve. God wanted to have a
close and personal relationship with the very people that He created. But when
sin came into the world, that relationship with God was broken. Adam and Eve
were forced out of the garden and into a world that was filled with darkness,
despair, and death.
That is the real inconvenient truth. We were meant to live
in paradise, instead we found ourselves in the midst of a world in crisis. We
were supposed to have a relationship with God that allowed us to see Him and
touch Him, instead we were like orphan children wondering the streets in hope
of finding a home.
Many may wonder why we have to pay the price for something
that Adam and Eve did, but we know that given the opportunity we would all sin
on our own. In fact, we all have sinned on our own. Many numerous times. We are
just as guilty, and that guilt separated us from God.
Yet God has been doing everything possible to call people
back into a relationship with Him. He loved the world so much that He was
willing to allow His One and Only Son to be born in the form of a baby, to live
a perfect life, and to die on a cross so that we could have forgiveness of our
sins and be restored in our relationship with God.
God loved us even when we were still neck high in our sins.
God loved us even when we did not love Him. God loved us even when we wanted
nothing to do with Him. Even then, God loved us. And that is the love that we
are to have for others.
To love even when it is inconvenient. To love even when it
is hard. To love even when we don’t feel loved in return. To love even when it
is that person that drives you mad. To love even when…
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with
all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as
yourself.
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