Hearing and Living God's Call to Love Others... in Word and Deed
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I the Lord of snow and rain, I have borne my people's pain.
I have wept for love of them, they turn away.
I will break their hearts of stone, give them hearts for love alone,
I will speak my word to them. Who shall I send?Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard You calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if You lead me,
I will hold Your people in my heart.
~ Lyrics by Dan Schutte, © 1981, OCP. All rights reserved.
Jesus commands us to "love our neighbor as ourselves." That is one challenging commandment to follow. In our culture, we have developed all sorts of ways to wiggle out of truly loving another person. Many dehumanize our neighbors and treat them like they are not human. If a person is not human, some feel free to treat them poorly. Another way to avoid loving our neighbor is by seeing a person as inferior because of race, sexual orientation, or class. If a person is inferior, we think they don't deserve the same privileges as those in power.
Jesus was very clear and insisted that we love our neighbors by our words and deeds. But unfortunately, our prejudices and biases keep getting in our way, and we take little time to check to see if our assumptions are correct.
Discipleship is about being in a relationship with God and our neighbors, family, friends, and coworkers. Relationships happen when we cultivate relationships and learn about our neighbors, even when our neighbor is different than us, which is extremely difficult in today's world, where we have a few people with a giant megaphone sowing seeds of division.
As Jesus' disciples, we are called to hear Jesus' call to love our neighbor both in word and deed. We are called to listen to the Word on Sunday morning and live the word every day of our lives. But, if we want to live all Jesus' commands us to do, we begin by being present in people's lives, building relationships, having hard conversations, and loving our neighbors.
If you want to do more than hear God's Word and want to build loving relationships which lead others to a relationship with God and community, you are invited to the following:
The Ministry of Presence: Cultivating Relationships in an Ever-Changing World.
The workshop will be held via Zoom on February 26, 2022, from 9:00 am to 11:30 am CST.
The cost is $10 per person.
For more information, go to The Ministry of Presence: Cultivating Relationships in an Ever-Changing World where you can learn more about the event; George Howard, the workshop leader; and download a flyer to share with others.
To register, go to the workshop's Zoom registration form.
I hope you will take advantage of "The Ministry of Presence" workshop, which will help you and your church develop a lasting presence in your community.