Happy Late Valentines Day!

Hello again!

Wow. Still bad at this. But we're still pushing on forward more into this writing thing. Put practices makes progress, not perfection. 

I think I said last blog I was going to be working on some theological commentaries for popular media, and yes that's coming. Just not tonight.

Tonight I'm writing from a coffee shop in my old college town and truthfully it's both strangely comforting and uncomfortable at the same time. February is a hard month from me, or at least it has been for the past three years, and I feel like I've either been seeking out the ultra familiar for comfort or either...idk sleeping? I've been sick a lot recently and my allergies are just kicking my butt. The past few weeks have been filled with a few pilgrimages back to what is familiar apparently. I've hung out in quite a few spots that I used to haunt frequently before I moved to San Antonio, and next weekend I'm taking the whole weekend to head back to a spot that was significant to Cameron and I. 

This morning in worship I was thinking about how on Friday it will be three years since we lost Cameron, and somehow that feels like both no time at all and also like a lifetime has passed. Though this is the third time I've done this, walking into this week I feel like I'm doing it all over again for the first time. This is the first year I won't be with my CYMT community for the anniversary of Cameron's passing. Retreat has always fallen on the weekend that marked his passing, so I always had my community to go be amongst during that time. Regardless, I'm excited to go spend some time down by the coast in one of our spots. 

But also this morning during worship, along side of remembering what this week means to me, I was also reminded about what else we're celebrating in February. This month the children's ministry has been spending a month talking about God's love and what we are invited into when we choose to be a part of that kingdom that loves God and loves others. I've had the chance to write a series of devotionals for families to read together covering some of the Bible's most familiar verses having to do with God's love. Since I'm venturing into this whole writing thing, I figured here is as good a place to post those as anywhere else. 

The first week we focused on John 3:16, arguably the Bible's most well known piece of scripture. I have to admit though, I did not write the devotional for that week, so I won't post that one. The second week of February we talked about what is love actually? We used one of arguably the most taken out of context pieces of scripture, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 to explain what is Paul saying someone who loves others well look like. The third week, this week, we are talking about we love because God loved us first. We’re talking a look at some of the passage from 1 John 4 talking about why we choose to love as well. Next week we will talk about love being the greatest commandment we’ve been given. I won’t be posting that devotional until later.

So, if you’re interested in those, keep reading!

February 9, 2020 

What is Love? 

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 

We say we love a lot of things. Go ahead, name 3 things you love: 

1.       

2.       

3.       

We use the word love to describe so many things that we like and enjoy. One thing you may love is chocolate ice cream, and while liking chocolate ice cream a lot isn’t bad, shouldn’t saying we love something or someone mean something more? In the Bible, a pastor named Paul spends some time explaining to a church he started what it really means to love, and I don’t think he was talking about like the way you love chocolate ice cream.  

In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Paul explains what love should look like when one person is showing love to another person. He says a person showing love to someone else looks like patience and kindness. They aren’t rude and they don’t show off or try to make the other person jealous. People who love put other people’s needs first, instead of always having it their way. People who love try to be in a good mood when they spend time with other people; even when the other person isn’t in a good mood. People who love do not hold grudges, instead they are excited when other people are treated kindly, and always tell the truth. And most of all, the remember that love comes from God. God’s love never stops, never takes a day off, never decides showing love is too hard. And when we have God’s love, we can do all those things as well! Do you think chocolate ice cream can do all that?  

So think about these things” 

1.How often do you say you love something or someone? 

2.Do you think most of the world knows what love means when we are talking about God’s love? 

3.Do you think we should find another word to talk about things we just like and not love? 

4. How hard do you think it is to love people the way Paul describes? 

5. How do you feel when people show love to you the way Paul describes? 

Next one!

February 16, 2020  

Because He First Loved Us 

Read together 1 John 4:9-11, 19 

9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 

19 We love each other because He first loved us.  

It seems like we learn to do something one of two ways. When we are young, we watch our parents and do what they do. Have you ever watched a young child start to act and talk like their mom or dad? I’m sure you did that at some point when you were little! Little kids tend to be a mirror that reflects what they see around them in how their parents and family act. 

We learn how to act, how to talk, how to treat one another by watching our parents as we grow up, and then maybe when we get a little older we look at each other and follow what the other is doing. Have you ever heard of a trend? A trend is when actions, words, what we like follows a certain direction, and that direction is towards what everyone else likes usually! Think of what’s trending at your schools, is it hair scrunchies and hydro flasks? Is it LOL Dolls and Pokémon? We follow what everyone else is doing because we want to fit in, because we see someone else doing it! 

Trends are all around us, but we know as people that follow Jesus the most important trends we should be following are the examples Jesus set for us. Jesus came to this earth and walked alongside people, and we have so many stories written about how Jesus taught us how to love each other. Jesus lived in our world, experienced what it was like to be happy, be sad, be grumpy, not feel well, have his friends be mean to him, and still Jesus never sinned. Jesus was the perfect example of what it means to love others unconditionally, and it did not take a cool hairstyle or wearing what as most fashionable clothes to get people to follow Him.  

Still today, we know that we love other people the way God calls us to because we have the example of Jesus to follow. Even more, we love others because God loved us first. God loved us so much, that even when we did not deserve it, He sent Jesus to come be our way to spend forever with Him in Heaven. There is no trend that will ever be as great as God’s actions in love. We love others because we are following God’s example, and God loved us first.  

Think about these things: 

1.What trends do you follow?  

2.Who sets and example for you in your life? Are they good examples or bad examples? 

3.What stories from the Bible talk about Jesus loving other people?  

I continually stand amazed at how such a big God could love something so small and insignificant as us. This month diving further into God's love has been so fun, and I'm excited to continue into it. We haven't even scratched the surface, and I don't think even an entire lifetime could be enough time to completely understand the love God has for us. But man, what a beautiful thing to get to live in the shadow of God's glorious and unfailing love. 

And I think I'll leave it at that tonight folks, I've got some scripture to read to get ready for young adult Bible study tomorrow....because yes, even in post grad school life we're STILL procrastinating. Nothing ever changes. 

Peace.

K