This has been another great week of learning and growing in the Lord. I spend much time preparing for leading the students at South campus in worship during the week. I can see the reward of this work in the growth I am experiencing spiritually and physically, but I am also continuing to be challenged!
It goes without saying that this week has been especially tough with the pain and brokenness that we see in our community, city, state, and nation. God calls us to mourn with those who mourn. He also calls us above all else to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourself. I know I personally struggle with how to put this love into action. It is important to remember that only through Jesus can we truly love our neighbor as ourself. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul teaches us what love is:
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 1 Corinthians 13:1-8
