What the World Needs Now

It's a season of loving and giving, right? Even people who don't know whose birthday some of us celebrate on December 25 can identify a "spirit of Christmas" that they somehow associate with warmth and generosity. So if December is not just about commerce and material stuff, and it really is about loving and giving, what kind of love are we supposed to give? Not all loves are healthy, and not all will last. If we're going to give something that matters, it should be the right thing.

A Jesus follower named Paul said only the love that comes from God through the one called Jesus of Nazareth transforms. Only that love reshapes lives and rescues a lost and broken world. It is a particular love called agape in Greek, which is a love that is other-focused, self-sacrificing, and God like. Paul describes it love that is tested by fire. It is a love that is not measured by how it makes us feel but by whether or not it is aligned with the the heart of God. This love enables us to stand before Jesus pure and blameless; that is, having created no stumbling block for another one to encounter Jesus. This is not one that we generate on our own. It can only come as a gift from Jesus. In addition, it is a love that glorifies God, but it is all about God, not about us.

That's not the fleeting stuff of holiday sentiment. Yet that's the very love this world needs. If this is a season of loving and giving, that's the love to give.

So how would we do that? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.