In this moment, the same moment as some sit entertaining themselves watching reality T.V., which is anything but REAL, while others are being robbed of their innocence behind closed doors. We consume while the widow and the orphan are stripped of life’s dignities — victims of a conflict that is not theirs. It is not fair to choke on obesity while others starve for food. We can sing and dance in our freedom and our liberty while the slave remains captive; out of sight out of mind. We watch the evening news from the comfort of our homes while we pity those where the storm hit, the ground shook, and the waters rose. We walk by the homeless with the assumption that he will spend any money we might give him on booze or cigarettes. But, who are we to judge the alcoholic, the criminal, the prostitute, or addict as if we are any better? Who are we to forget the downtrodden, oppressed, marginalized while we go about chasing the dream. To see the imbalance but not do anything about it because we know that it will COST us something. If that is where it ends, we may as well say that we add to the pain, abuse, entrapping, displacing, and robbing of the poor and the needy. The only fair thing to say is that when we forsake the lives of others, we forsake our own… -Joel Houston (paraphrase)

When I read these words I can’t help but feel that somewhere in my walk I have missed it. Inside of me I know that for some reason I should care about this “imbalance” but up until now i haven’t. Sure, I have love for other people but not the right kind. Just the “easy” kind of love. The kind of love that dosen’t COST me anything… It was here in this moment of thought that I realized that somewhere along the line I have been too busy to pay attention to the most important element in my relationship with my savior. For some reason, when I read this I think of one word — love. And with the thought of this one word was born inside of me this revelation: “I have no idea how to love my savior.” Which in turn made me realize that I had no idea how to love other people either. I began to think about love. What it is. The purpose. The meaning of “to love.” I remember reading a book entitled “The Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman. In his book, he writes about love and how it fits into relationships. As I was thinking about the five languages as he describes in his book: touch, words of affirmation, gifts, quality time, and acts of service, I wondered “what is Jesus’s love language?”

In the Bible, John 21: 15-17, I think Jesus explains the kind of love that He wants us to have. Within these verses Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. But this is not the important part. The important part is when Jesus says “Feed my Sheep.” Basically, Jesus was saying to Peter “I will know that you love me when you take care of my PEOPLE…when you tend my sheep.” The fact of the matter is that loving Jesus isn’t about what we say… it is about what we do. When we say “I love you lord,” what we have to do to evaluate our love is to ask ourselves “does my life reflect a care about the things that Jesus cares about?” Loving Jesus is about doing the things that He has asked us to do. Loving Jesus is caring about the things that He cares about.

And what does Jesus care about… PEOPLE. Jesus loves PEOPLE.

He was committed to reaching PEOPLE, to loving PEOPLE, to ministering to PEOPLE. He reached out to the rich and to the poor, to the powerful and to the prostitute, to the social outcast and the socially connected, to the lame, the sick, the blind. Jesus loved PEOPLE. He reached out to PEOPLE. He told people the good news. He came because he loved PEOPLE. Jesus was committed to PEOPLE.

Now ask yourself: “Does my relationship with my savior reflect this kind of love?” And then an even tougher question: “Why?”

Think about a relationship between husband and wife. If the wife’s love language is quality time but the husband is constantly buying her gifts to make up for all the times he had to stay late at work, then the husband is not truly loving his wife like she wants to be loved. This is the same as our relationship with Jesus. Who are we to think that we can have a relationship that is even worthy to be called a “relationship” if we do not even speak the language?

Whatever the call. Whatever the COST.