Loving Others

Photo by Helena Lopes from Pexels

How many times over the past year have your thoughts of someone who is different than you, i.e., voted differently, has a different religious affiliation, or is in another social economic status, brought negative considerations? Is there someone in your life who has hurt you and you can’t bring yourself to show them love? It begins with the feeling that you are right and they are wrong and you cannot offer grace that person. I have been there myself and it is not peaceful or reflecting Jesus to the world. Thank God for his grace.

The podcast I am reviewing this week is “For The Love with Jen Hatmaker: Leaning in to Love Others with Rozella Haydee White.” Rozella is a theologian, a spiritual life-coach and a leadership consultant who guides people to give and receive love that is life-giving and justice-seeking. Rozella and Jen walk through what it means to lean into the hard.

I appreciate how Rozella shares the why and how she sees the good in people. “So, here’s the reality I don’t believe in what people do. I don’t necessarily believe in the actions that we take because we’re broken, and catch us on any given day and we’ve seen it we’ve experienced it. It’s not so much about believing and actions that we take, but it’s believing in this beautiful dream or vision that the Creator bestowed us with that. So, I believe that if were created in the image of the Divine, and for me, I call that God, but if we believe that people are created in the image of God, then I don’t really have a choice but to believe in people, because I don’t believe that God creates anything, but that which is life giving that which is creative that which is good and holy.”

We know that God created us in his image and in his eyes we are good. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.  Genesis 1:31

Many people use the word love as an adjective that can describe just about anything. We love our spouse and children but we also love pizza, a dry floral white wine, or the way an author composes words. Rozella explains how she defines love:

“So, for me when I talk about love I’m talking about that, which is creative, which is justice seeking and which is ultimately sustaining for our mind, heart, body and soul. So, I’m very clear about my definition right it’s not about a feeling, it’s not about kind of superficial romanticized notion that is without struggle. No, I’m saying, you know where love exists, and I again believe God is love, so where love exists God exists, there is creativity, there is justice and liberation and there is sustenance that provides for us all, and it flows with abundance, right now. That doesn’t mean that where love is hard times or struggle or suffering isn’t, it means that where love is those things do not win, those things do not have the final say. Where God is, suffering and strife and despair and depression, does not have the final say, God is present in the midst of all of that.”

When I think about God’s love, agape love, it is the pinnacle of what love should be. It is how God loves us as humans, unconditionally, with all of our current flaws and previous messes that we thought we cleaned up but here they are again. He forgives us and loves us each day of our lives.

The  Encyclopedia Britannica describes agape loves as the fatherly love of God for humans, as well as the human reciprocal love for God. In Scripture, the transcendent agape love is the highest form of love.

Fritz Cherry describes it, “a person with agape love never says what’s in it for me or this person doesn’t deserve it. Agape love is not friend, sexual, or brotherly love, but it’s sacrificial love. It shows action.”

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Sometimes it is so difficult to do that, especially when the person hurt us or does deleterious things. What actions can we take to come back to agape love when this happens? Rozella talks about how she approaches it.

“First is to recognize who they are. Second is to pray for them.  Third is to recognize that love does not mean absence of consequence or that love does not mean absence of conflict. So, for me it then is to push back against things that this person might be doing, to push back against those things that don’t align with my definition of love. Where do I not see substance for not just me, but for all of us, and to actually take a stand against those things with this understanding of what it is. And then honestly to let go. I think one of the things that so many of us are they struggling with is letting go of that which we do not control.”

That is so good, we all struggle with those things we cannot control. Which of course is fear of the unknown. I continue to remind myself, if the circumstances cannot change turn it over to God. Sometimes that exchange happens multiple times in a day.

This podcast reminded me how important it is to see our neighbors, co-workers, parents of our children’s friends, as God’s children first and foremost. He created each one of us in his image for the glory of his Kingdom here on earth. Now do we always walk it out as Jesus would, well no, we are all sinners in desperate need of God’s grace! I find myself asking for God’s forgiveness more and more each day. The wonderful gift is he bestows it to me over and over again because I am his and he is mine and he knows me intricately. He knows my heart is to be more like him, to reflect Jesus to the world around me, everyday.

I encourage you to listen to the entire podcast, it is almost an hour long, and they go on to talk about how we are all in relationship to one another and how we can support each other in our differences. The links for the podcast and social connections are below.

Friends I pray this post has helped you in some way to see God’s image in those around you more. Please share in the comments how you are giving love to others, receiving love from those around you, or if you are struggling to love someone.

For The Love podcast with Jen Hatmaker and Rozella Haydee White

Follow Jen on Instagram

Follow Rozella on Facebook

Follow me on Instagram

Leaving you with the awe inspiring view of God’s creation which I encountered last week at the top of Pisgah Mountain, NC. I learned that the Mount Pisgah gained it’s current name from the early European settlers. The name comes from the mountain Moses ascended in the Bible. 

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There is Another Way

Picture by Arek Socha 

Have you ever watched a person do their thing, that they do exquisitely well, and say I wish I could do that? For example, watching Ina Garten make her delicious Lemon Parmesan Chicken with Arugula Salad Topping, or Joanna Gaines decorate a room with shiplap, rustic shelves, and décor that takes your breath away. Now go one step further and actually try to do it yourself and then totally fail? I have been there, trying to sew like my grandmother did on her machine making beautiful quilts. But alas, I inevitably get the thread from the needle caught around the bobbin and it is a mess! This week’s podcast guest can help you see another way around that “thing” you are attempting to do but were unsuccessful.

The podcast I am reviewing this week is “Jesus Over Everything”, or JOE for short, hosted by Lisa Whittle, author, speaker, podcaster. She is interviewing Kendra Adachi, author of “The Lazy Genius Way”.

Lisa begins the interview stating, “You are here to help us embrace what matters and ditch what does not, get stuff done.” Kendra enjoys making new systems for systems that do not work for you. She doesn’t necessarily hack the system but she will make a new system so it works for you. Kendra remarks, “Make a path for something to work, when something that could work for you as it runs, as it is created to be, is already there.”

There are processes that I can look back on and say yeah, I did not continue down that path because the way it was presented did not work for me. But is there another way, another path we can take that will make it work? This is Kendra’s gift.

Lisa brings up a good point, when we try to get tasks done that are not working, sometimes we either try harder or just give up.

Kendra’s reply to that was, yes, totally, we do try harder or give up.  An example could be cooking homemade food.  A woman who has a family and feels like she has to cook a homecooked meal every night.  We think that to make it count we have to do it every night and by Thursday you resent it.  Then you try all of these recipes and cookbooks and you say well I am obviously terrible at this so we are going to eat hot dogs, cereal and frozen pizza from now on.  The next time you want to grill some chicken up you say no I cannot do that I am terrible at cooking.  If we do that in every area of our lives, working out, cleaning, your job, parenting, whatever it maybe, becoming anti recall of these things, go big or go home, try harder or give up.  That is why I wrote my book; it is not all or nothing. We need to create our own system that matters for us not something that works for the person who created the system!

Lisa reaffirms; this is great, there is a third option, and maybe you didn’t consider it.  It is not all or nothing.  Some people feel like they cannot hold two truths at the same time. 

Lisa consistently ends all of her podcasts asking her guests the same question. I believe this part of the podcast is the milk and honey, or coffee and cookies, if that is your preference. “What is the last thing you would say about Jesus if could only say one more thing?”

Kendra’s reply: “That He loves me and how crazy is that?  When I think about the title of your show and that concept of Jesus Over Everything, the over is the emphasized word for me.  When I think about Jesus’ love for me, He is literally over everything.  He is both, that there is a gift to my own life when I basically put that in the number one spot, because He is over everything.  I can let the other stuff go.  The pivot point, the fulcrum, of my embracing what matters and ditching what doesn’t, it is based on the fact that Jesus is over all of it.  Because He loves me.  Is to really experience and believe the beloved-ness of me to Jesus.  That I have to do so much to get Him to love me, to get Him to like me, to be glad that I am around.  Knowing Jesus loves me, if I were to never do another thing again.  Knowing that He cares about everything that is in my life, not because I am poor and weak in spirit but He also created me to be strong and wise and all these other things that He is living out of in me in the world.  It is the beautiful companionship.  The mystery of Christ in me, that is the hope and glory.  It begins and ends with love for me. If I forget that Jesus loves me, then it is all about me again, and then I swinging from trying harder and giving up.  I keep trying harder and giving up and this middle is because of His unconditional love for me.  It takes the pressure off of the all the doing and listing, optimizing my life, or the being this person that other people think I should be.   Jesus loves me and it changes everything.”

That, my friends, is what we need to focus on, that Jesus’ love for us changes everything. Without Him we cannot do anything of real purpose. If we put the focus on us then we lose the connection that we have to the Father and we begin to make our work an idol. When we are weak,He is strong. Jesus is our other way when we are looking at ourselves and thinking how can I do this? His way is the only way that leads us down the right path.

For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is that you may be fully restored. 2 Corinthians 13:8-9

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7

I would recommend you listen to the podcast; Kendra gives a few examples of how to implement her method in your life. Plus, the small talk at the beginning of the episode gives you a glimpse into the beginning of their friendship.

I pray this has helped you in a small way. Let me know in the comments section what is the last thing you would say about Jesus if could only say one more thing?

Jesus Over Everything, Season 4, Episode 36, Kendra Adachi.

The Lazy Genius Way Book by Kendra Adachi

Lisa Whittle’s website

Follow me on Instagram @thegodlypodreview

Follow me on Twitter @thegodlypodrev1

New Year, New Outlook.

Picture by Oleg Zaicev

Happy 2021 friends! I know many of us, including myself, are happy to have 2020 behind us. Looking back on 2020 it was rough and if you lost a job, lost a loved one, or are just hurting I am so sorry. Let me know in the comments if I can be praying for you.

If you know me, I am a glass half full person and for the past nine months I kept looking to see the positive in the everyday. I walked, a lot, and on those walks I began to notice God’s creation so much more than I have in the past. The bright colors of the flowers and the deep greens of the grasses, the reds, burnt oranges, and bright yellows of the fall leaves. The beautiful song birds singing to their mates. I am not sure if it was a result of slowing down or if that is where my focus was this year.

I appreciated the extra time spent with my children and husband, especially since my son will be graduating from college this year and will likely move out of state. These times together, talking about our lives or playing a board game, are like gold pieces that I am collecting, holding onto to, and cherishing.

Moving into 2021 I am asking myself what needs to change? I am not one for New Year’s resolutions, over the past few years I have tried to focus more on where is God pointing me. What can I do to make a difference in my life and the people’s lives I touch? Beyond just my family and into my community. The word that keeps repeating in my heart is love. With the world being so divisive and visceral in 2020, love seems like the way toward healing, toward understanding, toward equality. Doing for others what you would want done for you. This can be difficult at times, to look past the beliefs or behaviors of those around you and just reach out. Lend a hand to those in need even if they voted for the other candidate or they don’t believe as you do, they are still God’s children and we are His hands and feet. Show God’s love and you will feel it reverberate back to you.

We love because he first loved us.  Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 1 John 4:19-20

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.  This is my command: Love each other. John 15:16-17

The podcast I am reviewing this week is called “Everything Matters” hosted by Kate Bowler. Kate is a Duke Professor, a podcast host, and author of Everything Happens for a Reason, and Other Lie’s I’ve Loved. The guest for this episode is Bishop Michael Curry, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, and is an author, The Power of Love and Love is the Way: Holding onto Hope in Troubled Times.

In this episode Kate and Bishop Curry talk about how community love impacts people’s lives in such profound ways. Kate poses the question to Bishop Curry, “Maybe you could, explain how and why we don’t get more of the kingdom of God here on Earth? I’ve been a little disappointed to realize that in life we only get a glimpse, unfortunately.” Bishop Curry responds, “One of the things that occurred to me in writing this book that I actually hadn’t thought about before. I realize that a period of childhood trauma with the sickness and death of your mother, that goes on for a long period time. Part of what helped us navigate that, and I wasn’t aware of it at the time, was that my sister, my father and I, we were enveloped or part of a community that really did become a community of love.”

When Bishop Curry’s mother had a massive cerebral hemorrhage and had to be in a hospital hundreds of miles from their home in Buffalo NY, his father was a preacher and he would leave from their home in Buffalo on Monday to be with his mother for a couple of days. “He would take us to the home of family friends who were church members Dr. and Mrs. Bullock. And we went to their house which wasn’t that far from our house, but that’s where we stayed for a couple of days.”

Bishop Curry added, “That’s what faith community is. That’s what human community is. That’s what that’s about. It’s not schmaltz. It’s necessary for human growth in life to thrive.” Kate affirmed, “It’s not extra. It’s the thing. But I’ve chosen independence and I just want to have the internet and all my time alone. It does really, kinda open you up to the possibility that maybe we are made for togetherness.”

Bishop Curry continues, “You know there’s a passage in the New Testament it’s in 1 John, that just says God is love. If that is true, and I believe it is, that means God is the source of all love. And that also means that since we have been created by God, we have been created by the hand of love. We’ve been made by the God who is love, for love, to love and to be loved. That is as much a part of us, that is the essential core of us. “

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. 1 John 4:7-8

Bishop Curry remembers, “What I realized, it was easier when I was growing up. It was a different world. It was it was almost intrinsically communal.” Kate replies, “Yes. And now we have to go out of our way to find ways to move emotion into action, because it is, it is hard. I mean, especially right now with a pandemic. It exacerbates our loneliness, our hyper individualism, our sense that we were we should be self-made. Man, our culture is so unkind when we feel dependent. Just totally unkind.”

Kate wraps up the podcast stating, “Bishop Curry reminds us that the way of love is hard won, but it is the only way if we are to remake the world around us. So, even when it’s hard, even when it costs something. Let’s begin right now by blessing six people who we think may not deserve it. I know you already have names in your head. Yes, that person who posts ridiculous things on Facebook or that neighbor who never takes care of their lawn or that family member who has been really hard to forgive. Bless them, love them. Even today, if it’s just in your mind. And maybe somehow in these little practices of loving and receiving, we and the world along with us ,will be changed by ordinary and extraordinary love.”

I really cannot say it better than that. If we continue to show love toward those around us, bless them, go out of our way for them, it has to bring us together. It is what we were made to be, in a loving community with each other, even with all the messiness that each of us bring to the table. I pray this has helped you to want to sit still for a little while, reflect on 2020, and consider how you can show love to the people you touch in 2021.

Heartwarming article about how 10 men, that are attending a drug and alcohol treatment center, started looming. They’ve made about 200 toques (hats), which have ended up as gifts to loved ones and as donations to a women’s recovery house. They want other toques to go to the homeless and to babies in hospital once the pandemic is over. Read about it here.

Everything Matters podcast with Kate Bowler and Bishop Michael Curry

Bishop Curry’s book “Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubled Times”

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