You are not what you do, although you do a lot. You are not what you have collected in terms of friendships and connections, although you might have many. You are not the popularity that you have received. You are not the success of your work. You are not what people...
Why can’t we remember that his [Jesus’] last commandment was that we should love each other as he loved us? John, in his first epistle, tells us firmly that if we cannot love each other, love the people we know and have seen, we cannot love God whom we have not seen!...
Unless we are exchanging deeply committed levels of love with a few people, we will die slowly on the inside. This is precisely why so many people feel almost nothing at all. If we don’t learn to exchange love with family and friends, we will eventually grow numb and...
The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for...
Christianity is…a religion of resistance and a religion of hope. The point of the cross is not finally suffering and death; it is, rather, that a relationship holds. There is a love stronger than death, that can withstand whatever the forces of evil do against it, and...
Pray that God will empty you of everything that isn’t love. Speak an extravagant word of grace to someone. Look for words so lavish that their face and yours will turn red.
The spiritual life has its seasons, one of which is winter. But beneath the appearance of lifelessness, God’s love continues to give life at deep levels.
In my own conversations with Christians, I find that almost all of them talk approvingly about love for others, some talk confidently about God’s love for us, but few are willing to talk about their love for God… They judge that it is wrong not to love people, but...
Perhaps we are more attentive when life is hard. When we are open and vulnerable, the Spirit can more easily lead us forth to fuller expressions of wisdom, compassion, and love—to the heart of our humanity, the imago dei, the image of God.
We will go before God to be judged, and God will ask us, “Where are your wounds?” and we will say, “We have no wounds” and God will ask, “Was there nothing worth fighting for?”