...he stopped for everyone...

We read Psalm 119 at Young Adults the other night - you should read it if you haven't in awhile. Despite the repetitiveness of words like; "instructions, decrees, commands, laws, and regulations," which usually turn my brain off, I ended up having a lot of underlines on my page.

Phrases like "Your commandments give me understanding; no wonder I hate every false way of life" (104) or "everything serves your plans" (91) or "turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word" (37) jumped out at me. There are a lot more, but If I wrote them all, the entire Psalm would probably end up on my blog. Which wouldn't be a bad thing, Im just not going to do it.

We talked about a ton of verses like these that seemed to jump off of the pages at each one of us, then thought about how we could be more like David, the author of the Psalm - a man (or woman) after God's own heart. This seemed to be a hard one for us to capture and explain. God's own heart...how do we even approach that?

As usuall, my head was no where near empty of thoughts, and over and over I kept thinking of Jesus. The words that kept echoing in my head were intentional love. Seriously, those are two of the best words I know. Maybe you're not so excited about them, but man, the meaning behind those words can change the world.

There are so many people out there who are in need of something. In need of relationship, food, shelter, warmth, human touch...We walk by them everyday, we see them everyday. And most of us just keep walking. Apparently we aren't so good at intentional love. I think we need to try harder.

As for Jesus? He stopped for everyone. This is the kind of person I want to be - like him. The kind that stops for the man standing outside of Safeway, or the liquor store asking for my change. If it were Jesus passing by, maybe he would stop and invite this guy over for dinner. Or maybe instead of throwing a couple quarters in his hat, he would ask him his name, take him by the hand, and go back into Safeway to buy him some groceries. And at church on Sunday morning, maybe he would recognize that the person two rows back was having a hard time and needed some love, support, and time. We don't give much of that do we? I bet Jesus never said "Time is money." I bet he never told people he was too busy to be there for them.

Mother Teresa told this story of a time she went to a hunger rally (or something similar to one). When she got there, she found a man lying outside of the doors starving to death. Inside, all of these people were discussing ways to cure hunger, when right on their doorstep, a man was dying from it.

Love without action is just a word. And God calls us to live intentional lives... doesn't he?