Just Love

It has taken me a while to write this blog.  Part of me feels that I didn’t deserve it, and that made it hard to share, because I felt completely unworthy of the message contained within. 

During the possessions fast, I decided that I would approach 7 homeless people and ask them what their biggest need was in the hopes to be able to fulfill that need for them.  I knew I was taking a big risk, but I just felt that God had given me the idea, so I wasn’t really afraid.  That is, until it came time to do it, and then I was plenty afraid.

I didn’t complete the challenge.  I felt kind of rotten about that, and really, I wanted to know…I wanted to know what a homeless person’s biggest need was.  I thought that some might say they needed a house, some might say they missed a relationship with a child, and some might just needed a meal.  But I was really hoping to go away with an answer.  Silly me, to think that I was qualified to peek into the hearts of men.

The next day after the failed homeless project attempt, I was driving to the grocery store.  It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, just a trip to pick up a few items.  I was thinking about the homeless experiment, and kind of feeling like a failure, and still pondering on the question, “What is your biggest need?”  when the Answer came to me.  Love.  Just that simple.  Not just homeless people, but everyone’s biggest need.  The divorced mom raising three kids, the homosexual with the equality rights logo profile pic, the woman that scowls at me in the grocery store.  Tree hugger, business executive, the Pope, and the President.  Everyone.  The biggest need of everyone is LOVE. 

I look at people differently now.  The friend that excludes me from a lunch date, her biggest need is love.  The lady that won’t let me pass her with my shopping cart, her biggest need is love. The person that cuts me off on the freeway, his biggest need is love.  I may not be able to tangibly communicate love to every person in a way that they can feel it, but I can smile, and I can be patient, I can keep from judging.  I can respond nicely even when they haven’t been nice to me.  I can respond with love.

Part of me is like, “How did I make it to 40 years of age, without realizing that people just want to be loved?”  And part of me is incredibly humbled to be entrusted with such an important realization.

Love.  It’s just that simple.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”   I John 3:16