Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

Pastor Joel Johnson from Westwood community church in Chanhassen, wrapping up the Summer series on “Getting the Love thing right” said last Sunday in his sermon, real love is real hard. I do prefer to have expectations set early in a process and I am drawn to a challenge. Apparently that is why the phrase caught my ear and inspired me to investigate it further.

I started by reminding myself of the Fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5 (Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). There is no law against these. So why would any of these be real hard? I thought about it a little more and came up with some examples…

You’re driving from the airport and you get cut off by a driver who is in more of a hurry than you are. For extra measure, they convey their displeasure with you in gesture and in words even the least perceptive could lip read. My first impulse would be to reciprocate. But [through love] instead, you say in your car,
“Why, I ought to [pray for] you! and
“God [bless] you!”
Real love IS real hard.

Winston Churchill, faced with an impending world war, described his love for country and inspired his countrymen this way, “I would say to the House as I said to those who have joined this government: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.”
Real love is real HARD.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16. Can you imagine willingly giving up your one and only child knowing that they would suffer beyond imagination and then die a humiliating death?
Real love is REAL hard.

Whether it’s converting your first impulse on the streets in your community, a country leader inspiring effort of epic proportions to save his country from tyranny or God sacrificing his only child to save the souls of all people who have faith-real love includes humility and commitment and sacrifice.

There is not enough love in this world. It’s a lot of work to turn your heart outward, rather than allow it to turn inward. We’ve all been hurt, disappointed, frustrated, damaged and broken. We can probably recite comments made or recount incidents where we’ve been wronged. Repeating that vignette in our subconscious multiple times a day. Holding onto the pain is human…but it only festers and creates more pain and spreads like a virus. I heard a friend say the other day, “Nature hates a void, Eric” and the worlds tendency is to fill it with garbage, if we let it.

Real love forgives-this allows you to move forward rather than being stuck in a rut of self pity and a broken record of ‘did you see what “they” just did to me’

Real love follows the lead put forth in Galatians:
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Real love is unconditional-no matter what happens, no matter how illogical, no matter how imperceptible, loving others the same way God first loved us is possible, but it is real hard.

I understand better what pastor Joel meant.

How can you add real love to the world you live in?

Volunteer at a local charitable organization?
Toss in a few more dollars in the offering plate?
Maybe it’s as simple as thanking someone for doing something they are supposed to do/get paid to do/have been assigned.

No matter what you consider, do it with a giving heart and start recording over that sad story in your head with positive, Fruit-of-the-Spirit type messages.

Have a blessed weekend.