LOVE.

This is a topic that's been on my mind a lot throughout my Christian walk, and is something that's just come up recently in some discussions I've been in.

What is love? When we think of this word, the thing that probably comes to mind for most of us is probably romantic love.  We have desires to be married, desires for attention, desires for love.  We think of love being something someone shows when they know us and care about us and would do anything for us.  But is this what Christ considers love?

In Matthew chapter 22, Christ addresses the greatest commandments.  He says "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."  This is actually a passage that was taken from the Old Testament.  In Deuteronomy chapters 5 and 6, Moses is instructing the Isrealites of the laws set out my God in their covenant.  These were rules that were set in place in order to help the Israelites.  They were to do these things so that they would prosper.  I look at these as "helpful hints" that God is giving them to help them live their lives to the fullest.  In the beginning of chapter 6, God instructs them as follows… "Listen, Israel:  Yahweh is our God; Yahweh is One.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.  These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.  Repeat them to your children.  Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.  Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead.  Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."  Wow, he really wanted them to know this!  More than anything we do, the most important thing that we should consider all day every day is to Love God! With everything! Not just our alone time spent with him, not just our Sundays.  Jesus wants us to turn to Him all day every day, in every situation.

The second rule is similar:  "Love your neighbors as yourself."  Jesus also took this from the Old Testament.  In Leviticus chapter 19, the Lord is again speaking to Moses on instruction to give to the Israelites in their journey.  If you skip down to verse 18, you will see the passage Jesus is referring to.  It says "You must not harbor hatred against your brother. Rebuke your neighbor directly, and you will not incur guilt because of him.  Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord."  This is tough stuff! According to this, no matter what other people do to us, regardless of situations, we aren't supposed to hate others, take revenge out on others, or hold grudges.  And not only this, but we are supposed to love them?!  I know when I consider my own life, I can think of a few people who maybe I hold a grudge against.  They have hurt me in the past, and it's hard to let those things go.  I hold grudges, and I tell myself it's ok because of the things they did to me in the past.  But that's not what God says.  I am supposed to love them.  If I were to see them again, in the grocery store, chances are I would do all I could to avoid eye contact. But is that showing love?

These are hard concepts to grasp, at least for me. And like the Scripture says in Deuteronomy, we need reminders!  We should be writing this on our mirrors, putting this on post-it notes, writing it on our hands, doing all we can to remember that our two primary goals in being a Christian and living out a Christian lifestyle is to love God and love everyone, in all situations, regardless of anything!  

I recently went to see the movie Frozen that just came out.  I'm not gonna lie, it's so good, I saw it twice.  Awesome movie!  If you haven't seen it, you should.  I'm going to try not to give too much away, but the main tagline in the movie is that "An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart."  All I can say to that is "Amen!"  There is so much truth to that!  But with it, we must consider what "true love" is.  To me, true love is the love of Christ.  This is the most perfect love.  So when we show someone the love of Christ, that is the purest, most perfect type of love we can show.  We should love as Christ loved us.  And when we do that, hearts will thaw.  Maybe that person that I hold the grudge with, if shown the true and perfect love of Christ, maybe their heart will thaw and they will learn to accept the love of Christ.  Maybe their lives will be changed, just because of a simple act of true, Christ-like love.  

This brings me to my one and only criticism of the entire movie.  It's in the final few minutes of the movie, and the "bad guy" of the movie enters the scene.  I don't remember the exact words, but something is said about a character having the coldest heart of all.  Anna then punches the character in the face, causing him to fall off a ledge into water.  I think that this is a perfect depiction of what happens to us as Christians! We know that love is the most important aspect of our Christian lives.  We hear it at church, we read it in the Bible, we know it's there.  But sometimes, without the daily reminders that the old testament tells us to put up around us, we forget and we are quick to go against that love.  And yes, I know it would have been so corny, cheese, whatever… The right thing for Anna to have done was to show him an act of love that would melt his frozen heart and turn him from a "bad guy" to a "good guy."  If the moral of the story was that an act of true love thaws a frozen heart, why would she not love Hans to "fix" him?  

So there's my rant.  I hope anyone reading this has gotten something from this. But even if no one reads this, it is nice just to have my thoughts on the topic off my chest.  I have a few other topics that I need to get out, so more blogs might be coming in the near future.  But as for now, it's bedtime.  Please leave comments on ideas, thoughts, anything really.

Captain Phillips (Spoilers!)

I know, I know, weird topic. But it's on my mind, and I'm in the mood to write what I'm thinking.

Today, I watched the movie Captain Phillips.  I didn't think it'd be my kind of movie, but I actually really enjoyed it! Tom Hanks was an amazing actor and played the part wonderfully.  If you haven't seen it, I suggest you watch it! And if you haven't seen it, you might not want to read this unless you want some of it ruined for you.  

The basic plot of the movie is that an American Navy supply ship gets overtaken by Somali pirates eager for money.  This is a film that is based on a true story that happened in 2009.  After failing to keep the pirates off the boat, the ship is quickly overtaken and the majority of the crew are either under gunpoint or in hiding.  In trying to convince the pirates to leave, they offer them $30,000 and the escape ship to return to their country.  When they leave, however, they leave the Somali captain on the main ship and take the American captain with them under hostage.  In short, after being in a cramped escape boat with limited air, water, food for hours upon hours, Captain Phillips is finally located my American Navy ships.

After finishing the movie, I was shocked at the things these Navy soldier had to endure.  I started contemplating on how much of the movie was actually comparable to the real event.  I came upon this website: http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/captain-phillips.php.  I was a bit set back when the article talked about how it was kind of Captain Phillips fault that the ship was overtaken and how none of the crew actually looked at Phillips as a hero.  However, even if it was his fault, this movie reminded me of how much respect we should have for our veterans and active military.  

Even though this severe of a circumstance doesn't necessarily happen every day, they still sign up for this.  They realize that these scary situations are going to happen, and they are willing to do what they have to do to defend their country.  They leave their friends, their family, and their safety and put themselves in absolutely terrifying situations for our nation, and for that, they deserve our utmost respect.  And not only should we take time out of our days to thank them, but as Christians, we should remain in prayer for not only the military, but also for their families.

My encouragement for you today is this:  Take 5 minutes out of your schedule to just thank God for these willing men and women that defend our country and to pray for their safety and their families.

God bless!  Kayce