Vibrant: A Life of CallingSample

You will never live a vibrant life or an abundant life if you are still struggling with the command to love the people whom God has placed in your life.

When I encourage you to love people with the love that Christ has placed in you, my oversized umbrella covers difficult people, dysfunctional people, different people, obnoxious people, and unrepentant sinners. However, love is often tough and always calls people higher to Christlike behavior.

The sad truth is that some people are just harder to love than others, aren’t they? If you haven’t had to stretch your muscle of love in order to love a difficult person, then you don’t know what love really is! I remind myself often that I was the difficult person who the Father chose to love … and miracle of miracles, He continues to do so! He loves me at my worst and never lets go! He loved me even when I was in my mess and the love continues.

Christianity begins and ends on our love for God and our love for others. It has always been and it will always be about love. The depth of our love for God is always reflected in the way we treat others. The love that we show to others is birthed out of the love that God has lavishly, unconditionally, and unselfishly showered on us. We are a people who are so filled to overflowing with the love of God that love is the only possible response that we can have. God loves me completely and irrevocably; His love for me is not based upon performance or upon response to Him. Because I am the clay pot that has been caught in a downpour of the love of the Father, I have no choice but to allow that love to splash all over you!

Love is the starting point, the pivot point, and the goal for those of us who choose to walk in the Light of Christ. We can discern whether a man or a woman is walking in the Light of Christ by this one telltale aspect of his or her life. It is not possible to say that we hate someone and declare in the same breath that we love God. You can’t have one without the other. Loving people and loving God are undividable.