Ordinary Time

Pause

If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in.

Frederick Buechner in Whistling in the Dark (1988)

Listen

We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. We’ve done this since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all God’s people. You have this faith and love because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You previously heard about this hope through the true message, the good news, which has come to you. This message has been bearing fruit and growing among you since the day you heard and truly understood God’s grace, in the same way that it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world.

Colossians 1:3-6

Think

Have you ever gotten a note, message, text, email, card, or letter that sounded this great? Wow, think about how much more the love of God is known because of people like the Colossians who loved their neighbors enough to share the Good News with them!

Imagine what life would be like if we set up a regular (daily, weekly, monthly) practice of thanking God for Christians who share God’s love with their neighbors. What regular spiritual practices do you have? What ways can you develop a new practice that is devoted to recognizing acts of kindness and seeing how your neighbors have shared God’s love with you and others?

Be intentional about letting others see the love that God has shown you through them and others. Send a message through your favorite media to someone this week, thanking them for their acts of kindness.

Stephanie Vance

Pray

Dear God, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, guide me to see acts of kindness in your name. Be with me as I seek to share your love in the world. Amen.

Go

God loves us. Not because of or in spite of anything. There is no qualifier to God’s love.

God asks us to love the same way.

Go and love today and always!