Love: And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:3
Jesus: Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
Matthew 6:16
In the beginning of Matthew 6, Jesus shares three lessons on how not to worship and serve God, followed by what God is really longing for in our worship and service for Him. The ways not to worship God are all devised by man, something like, “If I were God, this is how I would want to be worshiped. I would want flashy exhibitions as often as possible with some obvious self-depravation thrown in as needed.”
Jesus reminds us that if we worship man’s way, we have the reward we are looking for: man’s praise and that’s all we will get. God’s love chapter takes it a step further and says we can give up everything and even become a martyr, but if we don’t have love, all that we have done in name only, for applause only, is only for nothing!
Journal’s Malice
When that first journal was opened on that fateful night, I wanted to give my friend the benefit of the doubt. She really did mean this for my good; she just wasn’t going about it very well. But that benefit dwindled with each pious pause and every gloating tilt of the head until it disappeared into the black hole drilled into my soul as she closed the last journal and said…
“We’ve talked about this and…”
“Wait! Who’s talked about this?”
She named off several of my closest friends and nodded to her husband.
“You’ve shared this with everyone?” I asked. “They all know you’re doing this to me?”
She mumbled something about they didn’t know exactly what she was going to do, but they all agreed someone needed to point out all these flaws and sinful character traits. It was decided she was the best one to confront me. After all, she was a women’s leader.
By now, my husband had found his voice more than once and, ever the peacemaker, was desperately trying to smooth things over between all of us. But he knew with this new information, the night was not only not going to end well, it was about to explode. I literally jumped to my feet. He followed, grabbed my arm, and called for the kids to get their things. We were going home.
I knew my next words were not from God at all. Shame on me! Oh, desperate shame on me! I forgot who my real enemy was. I forgot any ounce of truth she had spoken. And I forgot what Love had done for everyone in that house. I didn’t care! But He did!
To be continued…
One Another Living 