“Genuine Christian Love”
Luke 19:45-48: “Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; . . . .
Genuine Christian love is forged against the anvil of our selfishness and possessiveness
… It is important to remember that love is more than a feeling. It is active and transitive. The real test of my loving is not that I feel loving, but that the other person feels loved by me. Love is what I do to create this sense of feeling cared for.
- Morton T. Kelsey, from his book Companions on the Inne
Today has been a long day, a good day. It hit me that I get tired because I keep on going, and because I enjoy what I am doing–what I do is not really work to me, but what I enjoy doing. I spent the afternoon cooking and then served the meal with Ken on Polk. I took out 19 year old Dennis for his birthday. He was high on speed, and we spent forty five minutes, me primarily listening to him. After the meal I rested for a while and then went out and did outreach. As I moved among people talking, giving out socks and food, there was a sense of real neediness tonight. As I was walking up the street one guy, someone I had never met screamed at me: “You fucking scum bag.” Another was angry because I would not give him money. Kelsey’s quote speaks to me tonight, loving is not about feeling, but about caring, and I passed through still caring for those guys, wondering what kind of pain they must be in to react to me the way they did. It is like the woman on the street corner who refuses to speak to me because I gave her a pair of “used socks” one day. These guys go through their lives shutting people out, to the point they are totally alone. In many ways one sees that with our scripture tonight as well–I know people who desire to dwell in the temple of God, who desire to be close to God yet they feel so pressured to survive, and their appetite for money can so possess them that they find little space for Christ in their lives. Money becomes their god, survival becomes the god of the guys on the street, to point they shut out the help of those who can help them.
It has been a good day. Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!
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