Brave Enough To Love?

The US experienced another senseless school shooting a few weeks ago. So, many days have been filled with numerous news persons trying to explain what happened and how we can keep it from happening again. I have listened to/ read many of the reports and heard several different points of view, and I am not sure if any of them are right. Almost all of the reports I have seen are blaming someone or something: guns are the problem; psychiatric drugs are the problem; his parents are the problem; the state of our mental health system is the problem; and on and on. I don't disagree that these areas may have contributed to the situation, but I certainly don't think that changes made in any of these area are going to prevent another occurrence. It seems to me that blaming these items is the easy way out. 

To be honest, I think many of our problems today come from the underlying murmur of "it is none of your business." In the recent decades our society has been pushing an agenda that says, "this is my life and you have no right to interfere." While I agree with this thought in principle, I am not sure that it is working in real life. What I see now are many lonely, emotionally needy people. They have pushed people so far from "their business," that they find they truly have no one to share their life with. It is very sad, or at least I feel it is very sad.

Just think back with me a few years and see how far things have come. When I was young, there was a phone book. If I wanted to find my friends number I would simply look it up and give them a call. Now a days everyone has cell phones and those numbers are not listed in most registries. When a pastor wanted to go visit one of their members in the hospital, they would simply call up the hospital and the hospital would tell you what room they were in and if any new members had been admitted overnight. No longer, everyone at the hospital is sworn to secrecy because of HIPAA rules. It has actually gotten so bad, that sometimes parents can not even find out about their own child's diagnoses. (I know that many of the laws are good, I am just using it as an example.)

So here is my question....what if we were brave enough to love? No, I mean it, really step outside of this box we call our life and really love. I know you have seen them: the young person that always stands outside the coffee place looking like they have nowhere to go; the elderly person sitting by themselves in the back of the sanctuary; the mom at the park that often looks beyond exhausted and worn; the child on your block that never seems to have anyone to play with or anywhere to go; and so on. Why haven't we engaged them? Sure we might smile and say "good morning." But, do we know their name? Do we know anything about them? I am going to venture a guess and say that there is at least one person in your sphere of influence that could use someone willing to show an interest in who they really are. 

I have an idea of how to get started. Can you close your eyes for me a moment? Think about the errands you ran this morning, or make a glance in your memory around the office or even around the worship center from Sunday. Is there someone who is sticking out in your mind?  Maybe it is someone in your family, a nephew or cousin or sister-in-law. Okay, is God putting someone in your mind? Don't let it go!

Let me encourage you to take sometime to invest in this person. Get to know them, really know them. Invite them to join you for coffee or a picnic or just sit with you on the front porch as you watch the kids play. Once you have earned their trust they will begin to open up and you will see why God brought the two of you together. They really need you. They need to know that someone cares. They need to know that God loves them, and you are going to be the one that shows them a tangible example of God's love. Please pray about this and see whom God is calling you to love today. Will we all be brave enough to love? I hope so, and I KNOW that LOVE can change the world.