Chris' Christian Blog

November 22, 2018

"November 22, 2018" 

"Prompt: "Sitting down together and sharing what you have is the greatest expression of love." With Thanksgiving in mind, write your thoughts about this."

I would probably have to agree. I will point out that Jesus said that the greatest expression of love was for a person to lay down their life for their friends. So all in all I believe the greatest expression of love is sacrifice. Love gives of its means and I believe that is exactly what the prompt is saying, is it not? Sharing your time and your food with others is indeed a great expression of love. Unfortunately the "love" that many feel and express today and throughout the holidays is artificial. Real love would be expressed all year long. As a preacher I try to express my love for others not so much in words but in my actions. People aren't stupid. They can spot a fraud from a mile away. I try to be genuine with people. One of my best friends here is a man that I sit at the dinner table with each day. When we first met I did not know his name. Somebody called him "Festus" once because he watched the television show "Gunsmoke" faithfully. I was trying to make conversation with him so I said "How are you doing today Festus?"
He answered "I'm doing okay. How are you Hypocrite?"
He assumed that since I am the chaplain that I was a hypocrite! He has since changed his mind and we have become good friends. He has watched my behavior and determined that although I fall short of God's righteousness I am indeed a sincere, loving person who does my best to treat others the way I would want them to treat me. I mentioned the incident in which he had called me a hypocrite to him awhile back. He looked at me and smiled and said "You proved me wrong."
Love does not go around beating its chest trying to draw attention to itself. Love puts the interests of others ahead of itself. There will be a lot of false love spread today as many will go out of their way to do charitable deeds. However the rest of the year those same people will ignore the problems of others and in many cases cause those problems! Love is the same every day, not just from Thanksgiving through Christmas!Don't be hypocrites!