the first and last word

"Neither I nor the churches themselves really live much of the real Gospel - at least enough to actually change our present lifestyles." (from Falling Upwards by Richard Rohr).

These words brought me to tears today. During my quiet time before I started reading, a thought that came to me was something like "the first word was Love. The last word must be Love". What does that look like? Surely not judgement, competitiveness, or righteousness. Love. Isn't love the word that totally encapsulates the Gospel? How can it sound so simple and yet be so difficult, complicated, and seemingly impossible to understand and live out? What are we missing? Surely we don't have to "try harder".

What if we opened ourselves up to allow love in - to give love the run of the house, to look to love for guidance on how to respond, react, and live. Wasn't Jesus operating out of love 100 percent of the time? Love for his Father, love for us. What's so confusing about that? In fact, it really sounds like the pressure's off. If love is our go-to response then what would our daily interactions look like? What would all our relationships look like? What would our responses to the "big issues" of the day look like? What would our churches look like??

Lord, hold us accountable to Love.

~Candice