We started our Love To The Fourth Power series yesterday morning, looking at what it means to Love God with all your heart… and to love your neighbor the same way. As usual, I’m speaking more to myself than I am to our congregation. During my study time, the Holy Spirit usually does a number on me!
So here’s the recap from yesterday:
- Loving actions are fine, but loving reactions are more important.
- The way I react says more about my “love-with-all-my-heart” level than the way I act.
- In order to know if my reaction is compassion, I have to take the time to reflect on my reactions.
I love this picturesque quote from C.S. Lewis –
“When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to mind is that the provocation was so sudden or unexpected. I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself…. Surely what a man does when he is taken off guard is the best evidence of what sort of man he is. Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth. If there are rats in the cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness did not create the rats; it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man: it only shows what an ill-tempered man I am….”
I’m working on looking for the rats in my cellar… without making any excuses about how they got there. Just find them and eliminate them.
I want my reaction to be compassion all the time.
