Another Look at Love

This past Sunday (November 11^th) Andy challenged us with some Donald Miller’s words from Blue Like Jazz. In Chapter Thirteen, entitled Romance, Miller mused, “I’ve had about fifty people tell me that I fear intimacy. And it is true. I fear what people will think of me, and that is the reason I don’t date very often. People really like me a lot when they only know me a little, but I have this great fear that if they knew me a lot, they wouldn’t like me. That’s the number one thing that scares me about having a wife because she would have to know me pretty well n order to marry me and I think if she got to know me pretty well she wouldn’t like me anymore.”

Love is a little scary, isn’t it? Miller was afraid of “being found out” and so are we. If you love God, have you ever found yourself hiding from God? Andy challenged us to allow love to grow into willing to sacrifice...a sacrificial love. Innately we all want to love and be loved; to know and be known. But it is scary. The funny thing is that this love thing gets even stronger when we find out about another’s warts and all.

The Jesus Way

How did Jesus practice love? As the saying goes...let me count the ways---one way is to step up living a life of service; our needs at The Loft are simple---greeters and connection point at 9:29 and pouring Loft Java at the Café---any takers?

A second way is encouraging others to live life in community. Do you know someone who needs to be connected to a core group---after all, that’s where Lofters deepen their experience of expressing and receiving God’s love. Do you have friends who need to attend “Speed Dating”?

A third is giving. Who can’t get involved in helping feed Costa Rica kids this Christmas during the “Stuffed” teaching? And...a secret---we gotta pay for the electricity, lights, staff and stuff. Love is consistent giving of self including finances.

Finally, another way is to be bold and become an investor in Kingdom work and invite those unattached to a faith community to The Loft...muse on this for a moment.

It’s been said that the investor/inviter is the one who’s responsible to help their guest navigate the experience. That seems simple and easy enough...want to try it? Let’s commit to practice this love thing a little and invite someone apart from God to come to The Loft with you during the Static series beginning Nov 25th. Who knows...it may be a little scary to do that, but that’s what love demands.

What about it? Are you an inviter and investor toward those you meet along the way? How are you doing in ways that Jesus practiced loved? Need to step up living a life of service, encouraging others to be involved in a core group, simply give more and often? When was the last time you invited someone? Love is, indeed, a little scary. Selah

Grace,

Bob