Answering the Call: October 2011

Life has a four-letter theme. It's simple. It's LOVE. I'll prove it...

First, the impression that strikes me again and again this year, though a series of losses and health scares, is "Life is short." It really is. And though it's trite it's so true that every day is a gift . . . No time for grudges, regrets, or not following your dreams. The lesson I keep learning is LOVE -- love life, and love those around you with all you've got for all the time you've got, knowing that it's precious and fleeting.

LOVE is not just a component of the Christian life -- it's the heart and core of the Bible -- and thus, it's the very ESSENCE of life:

John 3:16 NIV
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 15:13 KJV
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

The Greatest Commandment
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

* * * * *
What, then, shall we conclude? I hope the answer is obvious.

- LOVE God, above all. (After all, He first loved us!)

- LOVE life. Treat it as a precious gift. Here today, gone tomorrow.

- LOVE the people in your life -- your family, first and foremost, your friends next, and yes, even your enemies.

I have a keychain that says "Live the life you LOVE." What I've concluded from all this is that Life is too short NOT to LOVE!

Who can you love on today?

** This post is dedicated in loving memory of Laura (Grubl) Gillette, who left us early for glory on Oct. 20, 2011. **

Read about Laura's brave & inspiring fight against MDS here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lauragillette/journal