Love, where are you hiding? That is a question I ponder a lot these days. It seems to me like these days we are more inundated with more negativity and hate than positivity. I am not saying kindness and acceptance isn’t happening every day. But, I am saying that we don’t hear enough of the stories of love and hope.

As children, we would imitate what we saw. In some cases, we imitated bad gestures and were reprimanded. Is it really any different now? If all we see is hate, injustice, and negativity, will we just imitate and accept it as the new normal. Social media and the news are so fast to report the bad and the negative that it seems all the good just becomes a blur. On occasion, we get an inspiring story about how strangers come together to help each other in time of need. We are so touched by the story it makes us stop and think for a second. It provides us with hope and faith in people. It allows to see that positivity does in fact exists. Moreover, it makes us think of the possibility of a world filled with more love than hate.

Luke 10:25-28 states, “There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him. “What is written in the law? How do you read it? He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”   

Jesus illustrates the superiority of love above all things. Although, Jesus gives us just this simple task. We all realize and understand that the task at hand is quite difficult and challenging. To love your neighbor is really hard.  Just because you tell yourself you love them, doesn’t really mean you do. I can recall so many situations when I should have showed more compassion to someone in need, but instead I looked away and just went on with my day. Have you ever stopped and helped a stranger change his or her flat tire?  Did you just continue driving along rushing to your destination?  I bet some of you didn’t think anything of the situation or think of how that person could be in serious distress over a flat tire.  Still, some of us, drove away thinking “sucks for you” and continued forward without a pause. Too many times we are just so distracted surviving our day to day, we don’t have time to deal with being compassionate for others.

I like to think that we are more compassionate than it seems.  But, our environment and experiences have distracted us from our priorities. When we allow God into your lives, we can slowly retrain our minds to again focus on what is important and reprioritize God’s place in our life. By bringing God into everything you do, allows us to take baby steps into practicing love above all things.

Dear God,

Help me to be more compassionate, and understanding today and the days to come. Help me to keep my focus on my priority of loving you. I realize you may call upon me to help a fellow neighbor in need. Be with me and help me accept this important task.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.