According to my Sunday School teacher, the world would be a much better place if people did two things. Yep, just two. 1) Love God. 2) Love others. What a simple explanation for the complexity of this chaos and hatred filled world. It seems like virtually any sin or wrongdoing that could ever be done in the whole wide world could easily be prevented if people just loved God and loved others. If only that was really possible, or even that simple. What a perfect world we would live in.
But the world is not perfect and people don't love God and right now, especially, people don't love others. We are living in a world where people are blinded by skin color, sexual preference, religion, ethnicity, and above all hatred in their hearts. People are greedy and money is an idol that everyone worships. Love has turned to lust. We let the media divide us into an angry nation. We, as a society, are losing our Faith. We are afraid to stand up for what we believe in. We tiptoe around the world, afraid to offend anyone with our views.
In Mark 12:31, God tells us, "Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
Love thy homeless neighbor. Love thy black neighbor. Love thy Muslim neighbor. Love thy Gay neighbor. Love thy immigrant neighbor. Love thy Christian neighbor. Love thy atheist neighbor. Love thy addicted neighbor. Love thy disabled neighbor.
I think you get the bottom line. We cannot choose to love certain people. We can't love people according to their beliefs, or their actions, or their appearance. God tells us to love others as he has loved us.
So how exactly can we change the world we live in? Well, I think loving God and loving others is a pretty good start. It may seem unrealistic, even impossible on some days, but its a start. If each of us wake up every single day and remind ourselves that today, we are going to love God and we are going to love others, we may start to see a big difference in our everyday lives.
Worried about a test this week? Trust God, aka love God.
Angry at a co-worker for making your job ten times harder? Try to see their side, and Love them anyways.
Afraid for your children as they live in this scary world? Teach them to love God and love others.
I know it seems like this is an unrealistic idea. Not everyone is going to love God. Many, many people don't even believe in Him. But if we, as Christians, are able to shine a light and be a vessel of God's love by loving Him and loving others, maybe we can show people that we are tolerant. That we love everyone regardless of who they are. And maybe, just maybe, that could move someone else to loving God and loving others.
Ultimately, it all starts with a choice. A choice to be bitter, broken, angry, and hurt, or a choice to see the good in things, in people, and in the world. A choice to put money, work, greed, and yourself before God, or a choice to put HIM above all things.
