Love 'em Like Jesus

My ultimate purpose in writing and performing my music is to lead people to a life-changing (and saving) relationship with Christ.  Isn’t that what our ultimate goal should be for everything that we do?  However, when I play shows, about 99.9% of my audience already knows Christ – or at least they know about Him.  This is not to say that my time would be wasted if I aimed at trying to introduce my audiences to Jesus, but I’ve decided that perhaps there could be a wiser use of my limited time with them.  Therefore I have taken on a mission not only to entertain the body of Christ, but also to encourage them to love those around them in a Christ-like way.  In other words, my goal is to inspire them to bring others to Christ by loving them as he would.

Love people like Jesus loved people!  At first I worked on applying it to my current relationships.  I realized that I should love my family and friends in the same way that Christ would love them.  This means I must serve them, give to them, pray for them, and genuinely care more about their well-being than my own.  While my selfish and lazy heart finds this nearly impossible, I have recognized that this calling goes even deeper.  This is not only how we should love those who love us back, but it is also how we should love the entire world.  I need to stop viewing people I come in contact with as strangers who get in the way.  I need to start seeing them as individuals.  I need to be able to say “God knows and loves this person just as intimately as He knows and loves me.” 

Christ’s life here on earth set before us a perfect example of how such an inward perception of strangers should drastically affect our outward expression of love.  The bridge from my new song expresses it like this:

“I bet the world would change if it knew love/ Well we know His name so it’s up to us/ We gotta reach our hands to wash some feet/ Go another mile to find a need/ We gotta step off of our pedestals/ If we want a change that’s radical/ If we want to serve the least of these/ Then love is what we really need.”

"Father, please help me to see the people around me through Your eyes.  Please provide clear opportunities to serve people around me.  Help me to understand Your love for me so I can love others in the same way."