The two greatest commandments. This verse is the memory verse for our Kenya curriculum. Our theme is: Trust in the Love of God. We desperately want them to know that the LOVE of God can absolutely be trusted. WOW. Our main Bible Stories are parables: The Lost Sheep and The Good Samaritan. The beauty of God is that I left EBC during a series on Parables and so the stories are fresh in my mind. And some tactics about how to communicate them to kids is in the forefront of my cortex too. :) BUT, what I am learning is harder than it sounds, without practice, is not using American-ized phrases - they will only be confusing to Kenyan kids.
What I am reflecting on this morning that is paramount in these verses is the whole person it takes to love God. Mind, soul, heart, strength - ALL of us! How many of us know what it is like to love God with our minds? Do we think about how much we love Him? How often is it that e reflect on His character and presence in our lives? What about loving God with all our strength? For some of us, at some point or another, we feel awfully weak. It just seems unbearable to love God with our strength, because we are tapped out. But there are other times when we are so strong for God that we can almost touch Him when we worship and praise Him. It's hard to love God with my whole heart. I often get distracted and swayed by my own longings or selfishness that I am pretty sure that I am not loving God with my whole heart in those moments. I once heard someone say, "Better today than yesterday and better tomorrow than today" ... great prayer for the Christian walk...and for these two greatest commandments!
As I prepare to go to Kenya in less than 14 days (!!!!!!!!!!!!!), I am prayerful that I will be wide open, surrendered and available to love God with my whole heart, soul, mind and strength. AND THEN to also love my neighbor as myself. I want to break and adore and serve and love and receive from the Kenyan women, children, pastors, and friends. And I pray that through them and through the experience I will love God more than I do now. With more of me than I am now.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16
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