A Light in the Window

A Light in the Window
Susan Hoyle, pastor Trinity UMC

Christ Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12:29-31) These are powerful words that give us a Godly direction for our lives. But these commandments aren’t always easy to live out in our lives. How do we really love God with all of our being? Who is our neighbor? God doesn’t really mean for us to love everyone, surely? That’s just too difficult for us. Yes, it can be difficult, especially those folks who get on our last nerve or who are so different than us. But does that mean we don’t try? Does that mean we just say, “sorry, God, too hard.” I don’t think so.

God sent us Jesus to show us that love is a choice and we live out that love in action. Love is more than feelings in our hearts; love is a decision we make with our minds. We often put people in two categories; those we love or who we think are lovable and those we don’t love or who we think are unlovable. But Jesus shows us a new way to love. Jesus loved people right where he met them, right where they were in life, even if the world thought them unlovable, even if they lived far from God, even if they did things no one understood. And Jesus loved them in to the kingdom. Again, we can say, “that’s just too hard for us, we’re not God and we’re not Jesus.” It’s true, we’re not, but does that mean we don’t try? I wonder how that hurts God…so where do we begin?

We begin to live out that love a choice by going beyond our comfort zones in reaching out to others in our corner of the world. Perhaps we get together with a couple of people and brainstorm on how we can be the hands, feet and heart of Jesus in our neighborhood or town. We look around us and see what people might need. We talk to folks who know the needs in our communities and schools. We become intentional in living out the commandment, “love your neighbor.” Then we remember, “In whatever we do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus.” (Colossians 3:17)

There will be many people in Bloomfield and Dexter who are a “representative of Jesus” on March 28. We would like to invite you to reach out to others in the name of Jesus Christ with us. It’s called Mission Blitz ’09, God is in this City. We have over 40 outreach opportunities to be love in action. We will visit in care centers, the jail, take treats to emergency personnel, pay for food for those behind us in line at a fast food restaurant, pump gas and wash windshields, pay for car washes, hand out free food coupons at four way stops, drive around schools and pray for students and school personnel, and the list goes on and on.

Last year we had over 200 people reach out in the name of Jesus on our Blitz day. This year other churches in surrounding communities are joining us and our Godly goal is over 2,000 people in the Bootheel reaching out with the hands of Jesus to be love in action. Would you like to be a part of this amazing time of showing God’s love to our corner of the world? Please call me at 568-3188 to sign up to be a part of this Godly experience. We will all have red t-shirts and we begin with breakfast at 7:00 a.m. Come and join us as we live out God’s dream for us to be love in action in our corner of the world….