Have you thanked Him?
Have you praised Him?
Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?
Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?
1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)
The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.
Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it. - Karl A. Menninger
Yesterday I was in Logan West Virginia.
This is the heart of coal country.
To say it is impoverished would be an understatement.
I was moderating and hosting an event we do with the Attorney General there called COMBATING ADDICTION w/ GRACE. Yet yesterday probably could have as easily been called Combating Addiction with LOVE!
And whenever I am asked to moderate for the AG I always find a local bakery and bring a little breakfast for his team. Yesterday I uncovered a sweet little local shop called NU-ERA Bakery.
Dear folks.
Two hard working fellas making something called “HOT DOGS” which is more or less an open éclair. Quite scrumptious. But I digress.
On the way I got behind the elementary school bus and watched some visibly tired mamas sending their little ones off to school. They emerged from some distressed places. Their faces showing the ware of a tough economy and a chilly morning.
It was a little sobering.
When I got over to the church, WORD OF LIFE Church in Logan, it was nestled in another distressed neighborhood. Again, sobering.
Friends, things are tough in Logan and as a result they have one of the highest overdose and death rates per capita in the nation.
Yet as the conference began, and the crowd settled in we heard HOPEFUL messages, messaged bathed in grace, and energized by love. Things did brighten up!
We heard about SAFEHaven a ministry coming along side addicted moms and their kids. We heard about LifeCHANGERS a fantastic place for healing and recovery. We heard about Crossroads Center a residential program for women that is making a remarkable difference. In fact, we had many of the residents with us yesterday; all with a glint in their eyes from the love they were being shown.
Yet it was when Barney shared that I was deeply moved.
Barney is a nurse. 41 years a nurse. Barney is a “Pastor from up the creek”. Barney used phrases like “Their eyes were blinking faster than a frog in a hail storm”.
Barney is a dear man.
Yet Barney had come to share about the loss of his son to addiction; his veteran son. And courageously Barney walked us through the hurt. And as he did he had a message for all of us. The time for APATHY is over. WITHOLDING our love for one another because we are too busy or disinterested must cease. It is time to GET BACK TO LOVING. When we don’t it is catastrophic.
That is why I shared that little quote from Menniger today. Our LOVE is potent! Our LOVE is powerful. Our LOVE can change the game. Our LOVE can cure!
But it is rendered useless in the hands and hearts of the APATHETIC.
Remember, Jesus made it clear, the only way people will KNOW we belong to HIM is BY OUR LOVE!
Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” – John 13:35 (ESV)
As Barney closed his sharing he asked for only one thing of us who were there; to pray for him. And as I walked up on him to thank him for speaking he began to sob in my arms. He didn’t care that he was on the platform. He didn’t care that we had just met. He was seeking my love. And I was glad, no HONORED, to give it to him.
We stopped EVERYTHING to pray with him, to love him.
It was a remarkable moment, so much more powerful that all the PowerPoints and the booths, all the rhetoric.
Barney needed love.
We have a lot of “Barneys” in our community.
You have “Barneys” in your family.
Are you ready to SHARE some love?
Ready to share the cure? I hope so.
If you want to become an infinite source of love, then go on sharing love as much as you can. Don't be a miser - Rajneesh
Love ya all!
Have a blessed DAY!
OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE
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