“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them… Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other… Live in harmony with each other… Do all you can to live in peace with everyone.” (Rom.12:9-16)
Lord Jesus, having just returned from helping lead an Alaskan Cruise, I’m smitten with gratitude, refreshed in the Gospel, and overwhelmed with delight in your creation. I’m also re-convicted about the centrality of our call to love well all the way Home.
I’m sure I didn’t meet each of our 700 cruisers on board for our “oceanic grace flotilla,” but from scores of conversations, your words in this portion of your Word ring timely and true. For those who know you, Jesus, putting off extending mercy, giving grace, and really loving isn’t optional; it’s our daily calling. It’s how we show and tell the Gospel.
“Do all you can to live in peace with everyone”… Reconciliation takes two, but loving “as unto you” takes one. Jesus, show us the grudges we are holding, the hurts we are nursing, and the hurts we are fertilizing. Some of our “cruisers” are in the final stages of life, some just on this side of burying a loved one. Others are feeling the freedom to return home from a prodigal season, or ready to welcome a prodigal home. Thank you for meeting each of us just where we are. Grace comes in many forms, but it always comes.
Jesus, you aren’t calling us to pretend, denial, or dishonesty. You’re calling us to yourself—to love as you love us, to forgive as you’ve forgiven us, to start overlooking some stuff and to cease and desist under-believing the Gospel. Help us Jesus. In the riches of your grace, and for the greatness of your name… So Very Amen.
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