Meandering Monday - Keep on Loving - Martin Wiles

Welcome to Meandering Monday, where we take a trip back to an earlier post and enjoy it again.

Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Hebrews 6:11 NLT

I’m the first to admit, I’m not perfect. Never have been.

And I’m sure there have been many times during my life when acquaintances, friends, family, and co-workers have found me difficult to love. Yet, despite what I know about myself, I still frequently find it hard to love others unqualitatively.

Such as the church treasurer who got mad because the ruling body decided they would audit the books annually. He took this as an affront to his credibility, and I was the one he chose to direct his toward. Or the woman who blatantly accused my wife of trying to take over things in the church…activities no one else was doing. And the deacon who wanted to “think” about allowing me to go bi-vocational even though the church couldn’t pay me enough to live on. And how can I forget the man who challenged my decision to have a toilet at the church repaired without first voting on it at a church business meeting? All people who were difficult to love.

Whoever wrote this letter wanted these believers to keep on loving those difficult-to-love people. In fact, their love would fulfill all God’s commands and keep them from becoming spiritually dull and indifferent.

Just after loving God with our entire hearts and beings—according to Jesus—comes loving our neighbors as we do ourselves. The above are just a few examples of neighbors who were difficult to love. All of us can give our personal examples. But then again, loving them only when they’re easy to love doesn’t take much effort—or love—and doesn’t even define love.

Unconditional is a better term and the type of love we need to show. This is the way God loves us when we disobey him, affront him, neglect him, try to manipulate him, or totally disregard him.

Whom do you need to show love to?

Prayer: God of all love, teach us to love others unconditionally as You do us. 

Tweetable: Whom do you need to keep on loving? 

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Serving as a Servant - Martin Wiles

In the same way, when you obey me you should say, “We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.” Luke 17:9 NLT

The captain gave the command: “Charge for the guns.”

October 25, 1854. The Battle of Balaclava. The Crimean War. A lesser-known war seldom given much attention to in history books. With whom the blunder happened, historians disagree, but the captain gave the command for an ill-prepared English cavalry brigade to charge a Russian battery.

Men with only horses and sabers charged a fortress armed with cannons and guns. Anywhere from 600 to 670 soldiers made the charge. Only 150 to 160 of them returned, many wounded.

Poet laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote of the battle in his famous poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” Praising their honor, he said, “Theirs not to make reply/ Theirs not to reason why/ Theirs but to do and die.” And in the end, he asked Britons—and all people—to “Honour the charge they made!/ Honour the Light Brigade.” After all, they had only done their duty … their service.

In response to His apostles’ request for Him to show them how to increase their faith, Jesus told them a story about servants. When servants finish performing their duties, the master doesn’t ask them to sit with him and eat. Rather, he tells them to robe and serve him. They would eat later. They did what the master expected: serve.

Serving isn’t normally the way we measure greatness. We usually determine it by how many serve us. Not in Jesus’ Kingdom. Servanthood equals greatness.

Nor does serving come naturally for me—although I’ve known some who seem to have an easier time doing it than others. I have to retrain my way of thinking. Rather than life being about me and my selfish wants, I have to intentionally focus on the needs of others.

When the palm of our hands open, we can let God’s blessings flow from us to others. And when they do, Jesus grows our faith. We give with the faith that less equals more. Although we should have less because we’ve shared, we actually have more because God opens the floodgates of heaven and pours into our cups.

A servant attitude leads us to do exactly what the Light Brigade did. Their commander gave the order to charge … to serve their country … and they did. God gives us the same command. We should do no less. We owe Him this much for all He does and has done for us.

Ask God to give you opportunities to serve as Jesus did.

Prayer: Father, give us the desire—and the opportunities—to serve with a servant attitude.

Tell us about some ways you have served. 

Tweetable: Are you serving as a servant? 

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Settin’ Up - Martin Wiles

Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2 NLT

He had never “set up” before, but he was about to.

Jody Baxter ambled to the Forrester place to see his good friend, Fodder-wing. Fodder-wing was good with animals—especially naming them—and Jody wanted him to name his new pet, a fawn.

When Jody arrived, he received terrible news. Fodder-wing, his crippled friend, had died. Ma Forrester asked Jody to do something he’d never done before: set up with Fodder-wing’s body during the night. A common practice, but one Jody had never done. Uncomfortable and spooky though it was, Jody “set up” all night with his good friend’s body. 

The author writes, “He shared their sorrow, and they became a part of his, and the sharing spread their grief a little, by thinning it.” (The Yearling)

While not a custom for most any longer, I once lived in a region of my state where a form of “settin’ up” still took place. I had been accustomed, when attending a visitation for a deceased person, to walk through the line, hug the family members, express my condolences, and then leave. But in this place, everyone sat around and talked for the entire visitation period.

Paul called “settin’ up” sharing each other’s burdens, and encouraged early believers to do it. Doing so would fulfill the law of Christ and ease the pain of fellow human beings.

Settin’ up doesn’t have to accompany only times of death. We can do it in any tough times others experience. By doing so, we share their load—thin their grief—and any shared load is lighter.

We can set up through intercessory prayer. I once had a college professor who wrote down every prayer request a student mentioned … and actually prayed for them. We may not understand all the aspects of prayer, but praying for others functions in some unexplainable way—if for nothing else to make us sensitive to others’ needs.

We can set up by doing something practical. Don’t ask the person to let you know what they need. Just do something.

And if we’re financially unable to help when we know of a need, we can share the need with someone who can. In that way, we’re still sharing the load.

Make it a regular practice to do a little “settin’ up” with others.

Prayer: Father, as You “set up” with us, give us a heart to do the same for others.

Tweetable: Are you settin' up with others? 

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