Just like that, it’s done. Christmas is gone, and a new year awaits! The end of the year always leaves me reflecting and looking to the new; new hopes, new dreams, and a new me.
We go into a new year so hopeful, so full of promise, and determination. We want to be better, look better, feel better. We say, ‘This is the year we’re going to make a difference in ourselves, our friends, families, jobs, communities, and our world. This time, we won’t fail. We’ll stay the course, do the work, and try harder!’
Why is that? What are we really looking for? Why is it so hard to find it? And, if we do find it, it’s still never enough because what we find never seems to satisfy us. In all our searching, what is it that we really need fulfilled? That longing to satisfy something deep within our soul. But how can we do this? What can we really do? I mean really.
Maybe… the answer is to, just simply Love. And this is the year we can do it!
Jesus said it’s the most important thing we can do. In Matthew chapter 22, verses 37-40 (NLT) it reads – “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
We will love God with all our heart, soul, and mind when we are obedient to Him. Also, as we persevere and not lose faith no matter what comes our way and when He alone is our satisfaction. Not another person or any “thing”. Just Him. It’s a choice we make. When we choose to know Him more, to have a true relationship with Him, and to recognize His voice, it is then when we can love others well.
It is then when we can choose to really love our friends, by taking the time to reach out and ask, ‘how are you?’ What can I do for you to make your life better? We can sit across from them and truly listen to what’s happening in their world and let them know they’re not alone. With our families we can overlook the issues at hand a little more and for just long enough to hear our loved ones’ hearts. Not their performance but their heart. We can lay down that score board we’ve been keeping on all the wrongs that have been done to us. All the hurt and pain that we have received and given. We can stop and think about how much that person truly means to us and how much we would lose if they were gone. Because my friends, tomorrow is never promised to us so we must embrace our today’s.
There are so many possibilities when we choose to love. Maybe we can love our job instead of dreading the day. If not the job itself, certainly the people we come in contact with. Like, that co-worker who makes us crazy. But what if we truly looked them in the eye, met them at their hurt, and pain and found a way to love them that could make their day just a little better. What if we loved our community? What if we looked around at our neighbors to see if there was anyone we could help? By mowing a yard that’s a mess, painting that house that looks run down or helping to clean that one place that is an eyesore to you. What if we came together to love and help one another not just because someone needed it, or that we would gain anything from it? But simply because we are choosing, to just love them.
