Why Wednesday ... Why Care?

I loved this post from Jen at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam where she wrote practical ways to help those who are homeless. When we see people standing on the corner with a sign that says their mother is in the hospital or that they will work to eat .... why care? Jen gives a beautiful perspective. When we know Jesus Christ, we know what love is.

1 John 3:16-18 ^"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

Our pastor gave a message Sunday about our calling to be people who extend LOVE in Jesus' name. Called to CARE when we may be tempted not to. He gave 4 words (WORK - GIVE -TIME - RISK) that are part of loving, and my brain just started working, taking each letter and pondering how love looks. I ended up with 4 acrostics that "spell love."

• W - illing to change their schedule
• O - bserves the condition of people around us
• R - ecognizes needs by looking and listening
• K - eeps God's perspective on the person before them
• 
  
• G - ives of their own supply and possessions
• I - dentifies a need and prays about being part of the answer
• V - alues a person because God made them
• E - xpresses compassion when faced with pain
• 
  
• T - akes opportunities to join where God works
• I - nvests in someone's life without expecting repayment
• M - akes the most of each invitation to do what Jesus would
• E - mphasizes Jesus' priorities instead of man's
• 
  
• R - esources are available for God to use
  
• I - nitiates reaching out in love, instead of waiting to be asked
  
• S - peaks from a heart filled with God's love
  
• K - nows that God loved us and loves others as a result

So why care when we a person with a need crosses our path? We love Him because He first loved us ( 1 John 4:19 ) and His love in us overflows to others.

1 John 4:7-12 "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

From one who is loved much ...