Ah, February, the month of love. And since my word for the year is Steadfast love this is shaping up to be a great month! Of course, we tend to focus February’s love on those we love, but what if we included those we simply like in our focus this month? What if we shifted our focus to those God loves this month?
I woke up in the middle of the night with two thoughts on love running through my mind. The first stemmed from John 15:15 “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I called you friend for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
Jesus, the one we are supposed to serve, changes that game and says while you are serving me I will call you friend. The word friend there has lots of meanings ranging from an acquaintance to a trusted confidant, held dear in a close bond of personal affection. This is where my thoughts began to run wild. Jesus – the one who loved me before I knew Him – that Jesus calls me a friend. I began to think of my friends. How do I treat them? Am I only friendly with them when it serves me? Do I seek out time with them when I am lonely and have nothing better to do? Do I love and honor them the way a true friend deserves to be loved?
As I lay there in the middle of the night with all these thoughts of friends – questioning if I am even a good one – my mind circled back to February, the month of love. What if I not only focused my love toward my friends? What if I told them how important they are to me? To God? What if I looked for small ways to tell my friends they are loved and valued this month? Some of my friends are going through some really hard stuff. I bet yours are too. What if God used me to show them his love? I began thinking of ways to do just that, expanding this month of love to include my circle of friends.
I wrote down a few things thinking that would help me 1) remember them in the morning, and 2) give my mind the peace it needed to fall back to sleep. It didn’t work. My mind transitioned from God loving me as a friend and me living that out this month to God loving those I don’t. God loves the unlovely. That is a heavy thought at 3:00 am. John 13:35 came to mind. “By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.”
My restless mind, now almost fully awake, began to wonder, “Do I show the world around me the love of Christ? Would a stranger in the store know I was a Christ follower because of the way I chose to interact with them? Does giving the homeless man on the side of the road a granola bar as I drive by count as love? Could I do more? Is God wanting me to do more?”
I wrote down a few more thoughts on my paper by my bed hoping once more that by writing it down and planning to dedicate more attention to this in the morning that I would be able to fall asleep. It did sort of help this time. The final thought/prayer was what if I challenge myself and others through this blog to live these two verses out this month?
So here it is – February the month of love. I challenge you this month to look beyond those you “love” to those you like. Find a way to make them feel important, valued, and cared for. It could as simple as taking a friend for coffee or sending a quick text to let them know you are thinking of them. Then don’t stop there. Take that spirit of love to those who truly need to know someone cares about them. Do something for someone you find unlovable this month. Become someone who is known for the love they give to others. Share the love of God by loving on those around you, those you really do love with your whole heart. Then share the love of Jesus with those you like: friends, co-workers and neighbours. And then take a giant leap and share the love of the one who calls you friend with those who have no one to love them.
I have decided to make these two verses the memory verse for this month. You can pick one or the other.
Leave me a comment to let me know how your month of love is going.
