Becoming Love

I just finished a book by Bob Goff called Everybody Always. It took me a while to read because, well, I didn’t want it to end.  I have been recommending this book to everyone I know. He wrote a book a few years back called, Love Does. Keeping with the Love theme, this book is about, Loving Everybody, Always.

Think about this for a moment, Everybody, Always. When was the last time you were frustrated or annoyed with someone or encountered a creepy homeless person? How loving did you act? I add in the creepy homeless person qualifier because I run at 4:00 am, 3 days a week. Just this past week I ran past one guy with his pants around his ankles, skateboard in hand dancing wildly in the middle of the street. A few days later another gentleman watched us run by and started singing, very loudly, “Yummy, yummy, I’ve got love in my tummy and I’ve got something for you.” He proceeded to yell that he is better than Mick Jagger and that he lives for cocaine. We debated about how he can afford cocaine amongst ourselves but were impressed with his enthusiasm.

Maybe another reason it took me so long to finish the book is that I felt convicted. The stories are great and engaging and I kept telling myself, “you would have sooo not handled this situation in the same way.” In the end, I decided I probably shouldn’t compare myself to Bob, but rather take each person that crosses my path and handle them more graciously than I would have in the past. It has been quite a Summer and I have been given many opportunities to fly or fail in the love category and I have done both.

The book clearly addressed the fact that we are not going to get it right all the time. Not even close. But if we could all do better at loving those who are hard to love, how much better could this world be? I’m not gonna lie, I really suck at this. I fall squarely in the loving those who are easy to love category. No, it’s not biblical or right or very Jesus like and as much as I hate to admit it, it’s the truth. 

The summer began with little league baseball up and down the coast every weekend. In the midst of the baseball my daughter, Natalie and I went to San Diego for my 30th High School Reunion and Papa Freddie’s 80th birthday. We arrived back home just in time to head off to the Coos County Fair to show and auction off our kids’ sheep. We squeezed in a camping trip and then Natalie and I zipped up the highway a few hours away for a two-week dance intensive. No, I did not dance, I shuttled teenagers back and forth to rehearsals, did laundry, cooked a few meals, played referee a few times… well you get the drift.

We squeezed in one final camping trip last weekend and for the record, I am sooo ready to be home for a while. It was a great summer, jam-packed with fun and friends but I am ready for routine, evenings at home and cozy fires in the wood stove. I need to take a breath and survey the scene around me. I’m not a fan of being overly busy and although some seasons require a faster pace I crave having space in my schedule. 

With all of the things that went right this Summer there was plenty that went wrong. One of our best friends lost his brother unexpectedly, another lifelong friends brother in law was diaognosed with ALS (he’s in his 40’s with young children) and a board that I serve on had all of our vision and plans for a community arts facility in our community completely blow up in our faces. 

When I look back at it all I can clearly see where and when I was acting loving and when I wasn’t. If I could do some of it again I would stay more physically and emotionally present in some settings and in others I would shut my emotions off completely and just listen. I’m pretty sure there were several times this summer when one could have looked at how I was treating others and had no clue as to where I stood on the whole faith issue.

John 35:15 says:

By this everone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

In the end its all about love. I need to do it better and not just when it’s easy. I am not going to buddy up with the homeless gentlemen on my 4:00am runs, but I can be a lot more aware of how I am treating those that God has placed in my life because on some level we need each other. Even if I never learn why.

Go get the book. You’ll LOVE it!

Have A Beautiful Day My Friends!

Tiffany

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