Commanded to Love by Lisa Burkhardt Worley

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Do I go or not?

A friend of mine’s mother passed away and the funeral was on Friday, almost an hour away from my home. Overall, it would be a three-and-a-half hour commitment to attend.

Normally, I would not have hesitated to be there for my friend, but this time, I felt penned in by pressing schoolwork. I had earmarked Friday to write a research paper, and needed to study for an upcoming test on Monday. It was a big church. I didn’t know if she’d even see me there.

Ironically, the paper I am writing is all about how we should respond to God’s love, and one point is that “we are commanded by Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves.”

While making the decision, I pondered, What would be meaningful to me? I knew if I were in the same shoes, I would be touched if someone put aside a busy schedule to support me, so after a lot of prayer and godly counsel from my husband, I made the decision to go.

Friday morning, I woke up at 3:30 a.m. and could not go back to sleep, so I decided to get up early and work on my paper. I completed every section but the last one which was: “We should respond to God’s love for us by serving and loving others.” It would have to wait until I got back home.

The church and funeral was beautiful, but when my friend gave a eulogy about her mother, I couldn’t believe my ears when she thanked everyone for attending and said, “You were not here on your own. You were commanded to be here.” I immediately thought about my paper. It’s a commandment to love others. And sometimes that means putting our personal schedules aside to be there for someone else. To make this even more impactful, when my friend left the sanctuary, she did see me and welled up with tears. I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, I’d made the right decision.

Not surprisingly, I came back home and finished my paper, just in time to attend a church worship event at the Texas Motor Speedway, topped off by fireworks. I had many reasons to praise God. Alleluia! I completed my paper! But I also praised our loving Father because he reminded me that the people in our lives are more important than our to-do list. If it’s of Him, He will help us accomplish what’s on our plates.

First and foremost, we are commanded to love.

This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you (John 15:12).

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Join us September 30th at 6:30 p.m. on Zoom for our next POP Chat where our guest speaker will be KCBI Radio Morning Show Host, Author, and Popular Speaker, Rebecca Carrell who will be speaking about “We Become What We Behold.” Our Worship will be led by Author and Radio Show Host, Donna Renay Patrick. It will be a great time of Worship, Teaching and Discussion. Click on the link to sign up!

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