"Now that you've cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it." (1/22)
"So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. You've had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God's pure kindness. Then you'll grow up mature and whole in God." (2/1-3)
How many of us love one another as if our lives depended on it? How many of us even come close? How many try? That's a good start, trying.[0] Even if you fall short, you did better than before. Too often we look at something like this, think "I can't be that good", and give up. That can be intimidation, insecurity, fear of failure, a sense of hopelessness, or just an excuse. But none of those excuse us from going for it.
"But I can't! I mean, I tried it a couple of times, and I made it like an hour..." That's two hours more than before. One of my favorite lines in Batman Begins comes from Bruce's Dad (later repeated by Alfred).
"And why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up."
While I disagree with this exact statement as a theological principle (I don't think God makes us fall so we can learn not to), it otherwise holds a great deal of wisdom. We can learn from anything. When you fall (fail), get back up and go some more. Learn what made you fall, and avoid that, or learn ways to cope with it.[1]
Love those aground you as if your life depended on it. (I'll let you in on a secret. Loving people is about the most fun thing you can do. But hold on-- some of them will love you back so much it will blow you away.)
"...Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk." These four things drive a lot of the drama in our lives. Drama is a poor substitute for fun and excitement, but a lot of us settle for drama. Malice is first cousin to hate, the very opposite of love. Love is real, it doesn't need to pretend, and doesn't hide behind fakery. Envy? Heck no! I'm excited when good things happen to the people I love. And love never wants to hurt someone, directly or indirectly.
This is not a definitive list; it was almost certainly addressing specific issues at a specific place and time. But these things are common to humans, and commonly get in the way of living in love.
So do it. Go nuts in your love for others. God does it for us, all day, every day.
[0] As you may have noticed, Yoda wasn't always right.
[1] Need help with that? A side excursion to James 1/5 has the answer:
"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." (NIV)
"If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it."
(All Scriptures from the Message unless otherwise noted...)
