With the many preparations counting down to the Eastern True North Conference, there was no doubt that there would be challenges along the way. However, most of us don’t think that the challenges would be about time or consistency in the products of our labour. What most people forget is that the challenge may also lie within us.
This year, there is no doubt that the Lord has been personal. Whether it is through messages in our small and simple daily routines or messages that He blesses us to hear through the words of others, or even moments that we “accidentally” catch a glimpse of or witness to in others, the Lord has been screaming LOVE.
Throughout the preparations for Liturgy, and even as I practice for the creative sessions for TNC, the Lord has truly challenged me to see love in literally everything… the GOOD and the BAD. Love is not always just about having patience in waiting for a loved one, or patience with time, but more importantly, patience with one another. Through the conference preparations, I have been reminded that love is also being able to be patient in our own frustrations by holding our tongue to speak with loving words. Love is lovingly correcting. Love is sticking through when the going gets tough, and pushing through to attain victory in successes for the Lord together. Love is acknowledging that there truly is no I in team. Love is being able to affirm one another despite of whether one is “doing better” than the other because in love, we are made perfect in His eyes. if we are made in and with love, then there is no other way to grow than to grow in and with love, but more importantly, the love of our Father.
With all the different ways to love, there will always be a loving way to approach each other and every situation. And with this year, the year of faith, being so personal, I believe that the Lord is showing us how to love in all the simple and challenging ways. “Now faith, hope and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13: 13) He wants us to learn the many different ways we, ourselves, can love, but it isn’t just that. Through the conference prep, I believe He is also challenging us to find the different ways we can love one another. Why? It goes back to something I heard a priest say in his Homily earlier this week:
“We can love our neighbour without loving God, but we cannot love God without loving our neighbour.”
I pray that this is something we can all truly take to heart. Let us not hesitate to EXPOSE OURSELVES to EXPOSE THE LORD. Let us be unafraid to RAK not only as we count down to Conference, but in each and every day, before and after, so that we can always be an EXPOSITION of the Lord and His love. #JesusExpo
“we cannot love God without loving our neighbour.” Amen! 🙂