Love is a Choice

Pastor Micahn Carter preaches a great message in this video about love. Love is not just a feeling we have, love always requires action. It was a little uncomfortable to listen to this message because I could so clearly picture what God is asking me to give of myself during what's left of this year. It makes me a little nervous, because it will require sacrifice on my part. But God has given me everything I need in this life and more, so how can I not give to others what He is asking me to give.


We are all called to love God and to love our neighbor as ourself. Who is our neighbor? People who are hurting, people in need. Love isn't simply a feeling, to love is to do something for someone else. Love is a choice. Love isn't always going to feel good or look pretty, to love is to serve someone else by choosing to care for them when you didn't have to. Imagine how different our world would look today if we all decided to choose love. The needs in this word are many, but the people availbale on Earth who have the ability to love are also many. What if we decided to take on each new day not focused on serving our own interests, but focused on how we could love our neighbor each day.


We do alot of achieving and striving in this world but how much, in the end, is love? How much time on our weekly schedules is focused on loving others, versus striving for personal glory? We are all selfish by nature, none of us live lives that look the way we wish that they would look. But when we take the time to ask ourselves some difficult questions, and make changes to our schedules based on the answers, we will see growth every time. Love is a choice. What will you do for those who are in need this year? How will you love your neighbor?


Here's a few things that will not matter at the end of our lives: how much money we made, what title we had at work, how big our house was, how trendy our clothes were, how expensive the car was that we drove. What will matter in the end is how much we loved God and loved other people. "Love your neighbor as yourself" is all about us treating the stranger the same way that we would like to be treated. If that stranger was your son/daughter, how would you treat the person? Do that onto the stranger, your neighbor.