Love 1

We had an unusual experience in one of my previous ministries.  We heard a member’s name on the news.  This was not a story people typically want their name attached to: tax evasion and bank fraud.  And when you live in an affluent area it is even worse.  Because I knew the daughter of this person, I texted her and asked how she was doing.  We never talked about the issue, but she thanked me for contacting her.  Several years earlier, I had been on a youth trip with her, and she called me her biffle: best friend for life.  It was a running joke on the trip.  Now at this point in time, she was popular in high school and had many interesting things happening in her world, but she had not been to church.  So you can only imagine her reaction to this news when she found out it was her parent who did this.  She was going to have to process all of this.  There were some people who put a mark on her; some avoided her; some ended their friendship.  But who would embrace her?

            Recently, a friend of ours was sentenced to prison.  Now, a friend going to prison is like a shot to everything you expect in life.  We prefer to dream of white picket fences, 2.5 kids, jobs, and an awesome retirement.  When we found out that the friend’s crime was so horrible that it was almost unbelievable, we didn’t want to talk about it.  This friend’s life is potentially ruined now.  He will never be able to remove the mistake he made from his record.  It will follow him around for his whole life.  And, as in any crime, there are victims, and those victims had parts of their lives stolen from them.  The question Mindy and I have had to ask ourselves is, Who will love him?  Who will love our friend?  There was a powerful moment in court when he asked the whole court to forgive him, including the victims’ families.

            These are the stories nobody wants to talk about.  As I write this, I wonder if I will offend anyone by sharing them.  Sure, I have eliminated the names and even the specifics to the crimes, but these are peoples’ lives.  We want to believe we can make this world perfect, and we want to gloss over the bad stuff.  But here is the deal:  we can’t just deal with the so-called “little bad things”.  We are all just one foolish decision away from a rabbit trail that leads us to mistakes like this.

            This weekend we will discuss a story that contains many famous lines.  Probably the most famous is:  “ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”  Many people get stuck on this, and quote this line all the time.  They think about money and greed, and that is as far as they get, but they miss Jesus’ next line, “With man it is impossible, but not with God.  For all things are possible with God.”

            This is what Love 1 is all about.  This is not about some part of a discipleship model that Mt. Calvary thinks is important to check off a list.  No, this is the reality of our lives.  When we come to Jesus, we find a love the world just can’t give.  Because of our sin, Jesus came to us when nobody else wanted us.  We often behave like the people in the story I just told you about-- a friend and her parent who needed Jesus. They needed someone to love them.  We could walk away like the rich man, or we could be what the Holy Spirit is calling us to be:  people that Love 1.  People that Love 1 person when nobody else will.

            As Mindy and I processed our friend’s situation, there was anger and hurt and sadness in our house.  We are pained for him, and we are pained for the victims, but we are strengthened in a new way.  Jesus’ mission is powerful.  As His disciples we have moments that remind us that we have work to do.  It is time to Love 1.