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Tuesday, October 31, 2006
A lot has happened in my life lately that has made me examine it and I haven't seen passion in it. Then Mr. Costas passed away and it got me thinking even further – if I die tomorrow will I die without regrets? So I started praying to the Lord for passion, a passion that I used to have but didn't have any longer. All this happened during the time I was at Skippers' Conference in Finland. I saw so much passion in the other skippers and their crew but didn't see it in me. So I started thinking – what is a passionate life? What is it to "live with passion" and then I came to realize "mediocracy is passion free" To live a mediocre life is to live a life without passion. So from now on I want to try to live above mediocracy I want to live on purpose. Yesterday I saw a movie called "A Love Song To Bobby Long" it's a really good movie – on of the best I've seen in a long time. It's not good in the sense that it's an action movie or a cute love story but it shows three characters that have hit rock bottom. Two middle aged alcoholics and a young eighteen-year-old and how they start helping each other. They start giving each other purposes. The girl, Purslane, gives them a reason to drink less and they get her back into school. It's a very crude movie but it's excellent if you watch it with the purpose of seeing lives being changed. It makes you think that if two alcoholics and an eighteen-year-old dropout can do so much for each other what can we, as Christians, do for each other and others? If everyone in the world would start caring for one another what kind of a place would this world be? I believe it would be a better place. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 says that we might have faith, be prophets, be wise, speak in tongues but if we don't have love then we are nothing. The chapter ends with "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." And then in Matthew 5:46-47 Jesus tells us "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?" We are not only to love those who love us but those who don't love us and those who are hard to love. It's hard to love an alcoholic but an alcoholic is a broken man or woman in need of love and healing. It's hard to love someone who has wronged us but we need to do it anyway because if we don't then we are no better then that person – Jesus said "love thy enemy" Love is not easy, it's hard but I think that the world has also forgotten that love is also a decision. Love is not fast, cheap and easy – the way the world makes it out to be. You decide to love someone the same way you decide to hate someone. It's easier to destroy than to build, in the same way, it's easier to hate than to love. I want to encourage everybody – love your neighbor no matter what he's done! Love is hard but it's worth it. Love is the only thing that can change this rotten world we live in, and God is that perfect love "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16. There is no greater love than the love of a person willing to die so that another might live and that is exactly what Jesus did for us. Not only did He die for us but realize that He died for us when we where, and still are, his enemies. Imagine the one person who has wronged you in your life – the worst person you know of and that has hurt you the most – then imagine that you had a choice, tomorrow he dies unless you take his place. And that is exactly what Jesus did for us! He chose to die for us, us the people who crucified Him, us who keep sinning – I don't think people realize that every lie we tell, every bad thought we have, every little thing we've stolen, every sin that we have ever committed is the reason the best man that has ever lived died! For He loved us so much that He stripped Himself of all His glory to be a poor carpenter that then died the most horrific death known to man because we lie, cheat, steal, murder, commit adultery. He loved and loves us! Live and love passionately! Do it on purpose! I want to end this entry with 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."
Amen!
Posted at Tuesday, October 31, 2006 by jjdelta
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