Murphy's Law

Series: Love



I had the delightful opportunity this morning to dissect a computer, in hopes of changing some broken parts and replacing them with shiny, new, or at the very least, working parts. But it can be tricky business because things have to be just right. Components must be compatible, Mac or PC, the right size, shape, and so on. And as I finished my work, screwing everything back the way I had found it, everything compatible, clean, and perfect, I powered up the machine to the pleasant surprise of a completely blank screen. After working and reworking my laborious venture to no avail, it occurred to me that except for the laws of gravity I think that there are no other laws that interact with our lives and bodies as influentially and frequently as Murphy’s Law. Regardless of your role or socioeconomic place on this planet, Murphy’s Law has shaped and conditioned how you live every day of your life, respond to every relationship, and dictates in one way or another many if not every decision you make. It is in the innermost chambers of this law that caution, hesitation, and second guesses are born. Murphy’s Law simply states that, “If anything can go wrong, it will.” If it can break, it will. If it can get lost, stuck, or broken, it will. It is the perfectly awful marriage of inevitability and skepticism. You don’t have to live long for Murphy’s Law to affect how you plan, tread, dream, trust, and love. It’s what makes us ask, “Are you sure?” “Really?” and “Why?” It is why we give up, give in, and let go of precious and dear friendships. Because if it happened once, it’ll happen again. If it hurt once, it will hurt again. If it fell apart once… inevitable and skeptical. If it can go wrong, it will. How then, as people of the Cross, do we love others if we are conditioned to be anxious of investing in something that is, seemingly, bound to fail?

See, I believe in Murphy’s Law. I wouldn’t call it a law, per se, perhaps Murphy’s Principle. Because not everything is bound to fail. Sometimes things do go just perfectly, just right, just as planned. See, at just the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. And when everything had gone wrong, over and over, while we were still sinners, God sent His son and in this demonstrates His love for humanity (Romans 5:6-8). As an expression of his love, God sent his son, for the sinners, broken, dirty, and Mr. Murphy's everywhere, and this is the purest form of love that he could show." In spite of a creation that repetitively ruins itself, God loves us. His demonstration of love is presented as even more perfect in the presence of such a mess. Our brokenness makes His beauty all the more beautiful.

I’ll be honest, one of the hardest things to do is love someone who has wronged you, especially if it is a recurring offence. But a love untested, unchallenged, and unopposed is a love undemonstrated. Second only to loving God is our responsibility to love the people around us. It is easy to love those who do not test our love, but it is righteous to love those who push love’s boundaries. Because things are bound to go wrong, get snagged, unravel, and get chipped, but what separates the unrefined love of man and the love of God is that God’s love overcomes Murphy’s Law and man’s unrefined love reinforces it. May we embody the unrelenting and sacrificial love of God to those who test, push, and exhaust our love. And in the presence of exhausted love, may we be refilled by the generous love of God.

Father, we thank you for your love. Make us a people who freely offer a genuine representation of your love and not our cheap imitations. Help us embrace your love and the grace that is engrained in it. May we be filled with hope in others and not cynicism. Grace and not judgment. You are our God and we are your people. Thank you. Amen.


Chris Palmer
Stephenville, Texas

What is Love?

Series: Love

As I was driving home from work one day, I thought about what love was. I began to really think about love and what it meant to me. As I think of my everyday thoughts and use of the term love, am I really giving love the prestige and meaning it should have? For instance, before leaving for work each day, I begin by telling my wife I love her. As I drive down the road, I think, “I would love a great Starbuck’s latte." When I get to work, I tell myself “I love my job." In picking something to eat for lunch, I tell my co-workers, “I would love some great New York Style Pizza.” Lastly at the end of the day, all I would “love” is a great steak!

Do I really love all of these things? To be honest, I do not love them all. I do love my wife. Most of you know her, and what is there not to love? What about all the rest of the material things? I certainly do not love them all! These are things that I just want. As I read about love and how the word love is used in the Bible, I can’t help but realize that I might be cheapening the meaning every time I use or think of it. Some thoughts about love stand in my mind as I read some of the postings this week and other stories throughout the Bible. First, you might think about the love that Abraham had for God as Randy pointed out in the week. Amy wrote about the greatest commandments, which are to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” Then we look at the kind of love we can have for our spouse, through Ashleigh’s love for Arlon. Melanie points out that love is active in John 3:16.

As you can see through scripture, love is many things, but is it loving a steak, a job, a new truck? I think that as you can see, love is far beyond just wanting a material thing. Love is something you do, something that you believe, and something that you are commanded to do everyday. You are commanded to love your God, your wife, your parents and your neighbor. But, do you understand this love that is talked about?

If you think about the way love is described in the Bible, it is most an act of giving something up because you love. For example, this means you are willing to sacrifice something or someone because of this feeling. I know that without hesitation I would give my life, my every possession for my wife. But not for a steak. Not even a prime steak! The Lord God and Jesus Christ showed us their love. Jesus served all his life because of his love for his father, and his undying love for us. Then both God and Jesus sacrificed by allowing Jesus to FREELY give his life for us, through his love, to pay our debt. What are you willing to give up to show your love for God, your wife, your parents, or your neighbor?

I think from now on, “love” in my vocabulary will only be used for a few things. Tell someone today you love them, then show it.

Our gracious Heavenly Father. I am in awe of your love. You have given us the greatest example of love. Your Son freely came to this earth, served, and died for our sins out of the love he had for you and your people. Allow us to freely take this example throughout the world. Please open our hearts to be able to show others that love is about serving you with all our heart, mind and soul. Help us to love you, and others with the same love that Jesus had. Let our love spread like a light in a dark land. In Jesus’s holy name. Amen.

Adam Tittor
Grapevine, Texas

The Senses of Love

Series: Love


LOVE. We can’t see it, hear it, touch it, smell it, or taste it. It is not proved by our five physical senses through which we take in all information. How do we even know it exists? GOD is Love. How do we understand that?

Some say they experience love. How do they prove their “experience?" They may say, “I just know it.” Any descriptions will be filled with “see, hear, touch (feel), smell, taste” types of words--our five senses. These are all physical sensations that we can receive. “I love ice cream!” I.e., I saw it -- in the carton; heard it -- plop into the dish; felt it -- the temperature in my mouth, the texture; smelled it -- the flavoring; tasted it -- the sweetness/flavoring. I enjoy all these sensations from ice cream. Same for pizza, chocolate, and medium-rare steaks. These are all physical sensations that we receive, but they are not love. LOVE is an emotion of affection or attachment demonstrated by behavior; that is, LOVE is the word we accurately use to explain our wanting the best for another person. We can both receive and give love.

We are told, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16, NASB). “Love” and “gave” are active verbs, not sensations; they require action to or from another person to be evident. God’s action (love) is much more than a physical sensation or an emotional response. GOD did not see, hear, touch, smell, or taste us to love us. He loved us because He created us! Because He wanted to create us! Then, “God saw all that He had made [including humans, ms] and behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31a, NASB).

He made us perfect. He loves the perfection He made. But He also loves us (i.e., wants the best for us) even with our imperfections (caused by our choice to sin) because He knows what we can be when we are made perfect, like Him, in eternity with Him. So, He gave Perfection (Jesus Christ) to return us to His perfection. Now the question is, how do we live as examples of God’s perfection, His love, while we are still in this world? How do we use our physical bodies with their five senses to learn to demonstrate Christ’s love to the world, to each individual person?

See: What was the last time I saw an opportunity to be Christ to someone? A fellow grocery shopper who has at least 30 items in the 20-item line and can’t find her checkbook? “May I help you put your items on the conveyor belt?” Or the stranger at church? “Hello, I’m .… Welcome to .… We’re glad you’re here. Can I help you?” Show her where she wants to go, go with her, help her find a seat she wants. I must not just cease chatting and walk off to visit others I already know. Make myself available! Do anything I can appropriate to the moment. Let the other person see me acting with love, with help. Mt. 5:16: “ . . . let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven” (NIV).

Hear: It’s a Friday afternoon, last payday of the week and the month. Monday is a holiday. Traffic is hectic. Grocery stores are packed. Clerks are tired, edgy. The din is exhausting. Everyone wants to finish shopping and get home. How can I relieve anyone’s frustration? Say “hello” to the greeter; smile at the checkout clerk, acknowledge her “hard day,” tell her God loves her and let her know from where my peace comes. Smile at the customer behind me, place the “stick” to divide my purchases from her’s, acknowledge the hassle, remind her she’s nearly through shopping. And bless her weekend that God may give her respite from the week. Let her hear God’s peaceful joy in my voice. “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Rom. 10:14, NIV).

Touch: “People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. . . .” (Lk. 18:15, NIV). “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. . . .” (Mt. 8:3, NIV). “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (Jn. 13:14, NIV). Those people learned of the loving healing powers of touch. Though our touch may not be miraculous, we can help heal others when we touch them. Touch gently, most of the time, anyway (“high-fives” can be okay too). Did I carefully shake the hand or touch the shoulder of my frail acquaintance or the child who is learning to talk with others? Many people hunger for hugs. I must loosen up! Share “my space” with my friends! Shake the hand of the homeless, stroke the head of the child. Acknowledge other people as human. One widow thanked me for hugging her. She said, “You know, when you’re a widow you don’t get many hugs any more. Sometimes you don’t really feel like a person.” And there was the leper who had not been touched by anyone for months since her family last came to visit her. Through an interpreter, we agreed we shall see and hug each other again in heaven. Then we cried together. I think this hug and her blessing to me helped me more than it did her.

Smell: I cringe at the odor of a person who reeks of tobacco inside a small store. I avoid someone stumbling down the street, unable to walk a straight line. I cry for the young child at school whose mother has not washed him or his clothes in the last five weeks. How should I react when a dying friend needs me to help with a bath and clean bedclothes? It’s said that smell is one of the last senses forgotten. It’s amazing how nice “clean” smells. Which person can I help, and how? Be polite to the people who smell bad. If I can, offer help, or offer to find someone who can help. Bathe my friend. Wash the child’s feet. Show compassion in all my behavior. We all need washing, and not just with soap and water. Can I help them want to be washed with Christ’s blood? His blood is spiritually redeeming, but think of the physical smell when He was crucified! The blood, the sweat, the tears, the dirt, the urine and excrement! This was part of His Body, His Love! Joseph of Arimathea showed his love by asking Pilate for Jesus’ body, and by taking and wrapping the body and burying it in his own tomb (Mt. 27:57-60; Mk. 15:43, 46; Lk. 23:50-53; Jn. 19:38-40). With those smells, could I show that love for my Savior? Can I dare turn my back on others who do not yet smell “clean?" “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing” (2 Cor. 2:15).

Taste: So connected with smell. “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth?” (Ps. 119:103, NIV). “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him” (Ps. 34:8, NIV). “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9, NIV). Am I treating everyone I meet, or even some of them, as though I want them to “taste the LORD,” to experience His sweetness, so they do not have to “taste death?" Am I willing to share the tasty feast at the Lord’s Table?

I am incapable of being what Jesus would be, of doing just what He would do when He meets the people I meet. I can only show love to others (i.e., show I want the best for them), by using my body to demonstrate His holy love, being what Jesus wants me to be to all I meet. “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us” (Rom. 12:6a, NIV). My gifts are unique to me, yours to you. How I use them is unique to me. Do I love other people enough to show my love for them? Do I make them “love” what they “sense” about me because of how I treat them? If I show non-Christians the same “love” I show my fellow Christians, is my love convincing? John Denver wrote a song, “Annie’s Song,” in which he said:
You fill up my senses like a night in a forest
Like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain
Like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean
You fill up my senses come fill me again.

I must continually inventory how I use my physical senses to love others. Let’s all consciously fill up each other and the world with the “sensual,” spiritual life with Jesus.

Dear Lord, You who are perfect Love, help me to use all my senses to BE love to others, to show them how to have their senses filled with Your perfect love, now and forever. Through Jesus, Whose perfect love allows us to “sense” you even now, and to live with You forever, Amen.

Marilyn Schulze
Stephenville, TX

The Love Dare

Series: Love


Love is one common emotion that we were all created with. We all have loved someone or something at one time in our life. We have also been on the receiving end as well. God has loved us from the beginning and has blessed us in many ways. Love is the greatest command--it encompasses our life.

We also can all relate to having relationships. We hope for wonderful friendships, great family relationships and loving marriage relationships. I believe we all desire a life filled with genuine relationships. They are validating and healthy.

I once read a story about an elderly couple that had been married for over 60 years. She was in the hospital dying, and he knew it. He stood by her side and talked about their journey from their wedding day to their last. He begged her to whisper his name one more time. He cried because he knew he would leave and go home alone that evening.

This story inspired me to take the emotion that God gave me, love, and to make the most of it. Choose love! It is a decision, not just a feeling. In an effort to focus and think about how I love… I am going to attempt a challenge, or rather a dare! Interested? I am going to take a dare that will lead me to explore and demonstrate genuine love. Learning to truly love is said to be one of the most important things that one could ever do. I plan to start reading the Love Dare, by Steven and Alex Kendrick. I would love for you to join me on this 40 day journey. Email me at ashleighfeuer@embarqmail.com if you are interested.

May 5th, 2001… I married the Love of my life. He is a wonderful Christian father and husband. I want to enhance our journey and make it similar to the couple mentioned earlier. A loving relationship that is genuine and aches for one more whisper.

This southern girl was married in the heat of the summer, during a thunderstorm….outside! I would not change one thing about our journey thus far, but I do want to make sure that I do my part to make the next 10 years even better!! Thanks to my husband for loving me!

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for allowing us to experience love. It is such a powerful emotion that brings so much joy. Thank you for loving us and sending your son. Allow each of us to think about how we love on a daily basis. Help us to focus on our love for our spouse, our children, our families and our friends. Thank you for first loving us!
In Your Son’s Name I pray.


Ashleigh Feuerbacher
Stephenville, Texas

Paper Doll Christian

Series: Love


Matt. 22: 37-40 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

This story below happened not long ago to a friend of mine. In her words:

"Something happened in church yesterday that really shook my world. I'm reasonably certain it was meant just for me, but now it has me wondering what to do next.

Here's what happened: Our "regular" pew was full, so we circled around and sat on the far right half way back which is the first "God thing" that happened. After the first couple of songs, a young pregnant girl with 2 little babies, one holding her hand and the other on her hip came in looking for a seat. She went to the empty pew in front of us and tapped the lady on the shoulder so that she and her babies could slip into that spot. The lady shook her head "no" and indicated that she was saving that spot for someone else. The girl smiled, turned around and walked out of the auditorium with her babies in tow. I looked over at Dusty and whispered "I'm giving her our seat, get up!" I ran out into the foyer and told her to come back and take our pew, PLEASE! The look in her eyes said everything I knew she was feeling because I have been that girl. My efforts were too little, too late. She said "No, thank you. I'll find somewhere else...maybe the balcony." I saw the tears in her eyes. I went and sat down and could think of nothing else during the rest of the service.

This morning, I'm thinking about other things that have transpired in my life this week, which of course are not accidental or coincidental, and I'm wondering, "Why do we PLAY church?" I don't want to be a paper-doll Christian and I'm looking for some answers. I cannot believe I sat there and let that happen right in front of me. God is shaking me by the shoulders and telling me I'm too comfortable."

Please pray for me as I listen and change.I don't think that the lady was being mean or unfeeling on purpose. I am sure she just was not thinking about anything but who she was saving the seat for. As my friend said above we are just too comfortable. God asks us to love Him above all else with our hearts and souls and minds. He then says we are to love other people just as much as we love ourselves. The problem is, we think about ourselves all of the time instead of thinking of other people. Everything we do is for our own comfort. Loving is hard and can be messy and time consuming. We can't be paper doll Christians. We are called to actually get into peoples lives and out of our comfort zones.

I ask myself, "How can I have the mind of Christ and the eyes of God so that I will not miss opportunities to love other people that He is putting right under my nose?" The first thing that comes to mind if I am trying to have the mind of Christ is that I have to stay in His Word. I must lay it on my heart so that my first reaction is not a selfish one but a prompting from God. I don't want to pass on to my children how to live a comfortable, self seeking life but how to live a life expecting and being excited about who God is going to let us touch for Him everyday. I want to wake up thinking with a spiritual mind and seeing with God's eyes and having the mindset of Christ.

Father God, please help us to love other people MORE than we love ourselves. Help us to see with Your eyes and to lay Your Word on our hearts so that we can respond in everyday happenings with Your heart in our actions and words. Help us not to save seats to the hurt of other people and help us not to be paper doll Christians but to be alive and loving and seeking to serve those that need Your love. Help us to be so full of Your word and love that we cannot keep it from flowing out of our mouths and our actions and please keep WAKING us up to ways we can love better for You. In Jesus name, amen.

Amy Walker
Nacodoches, Texas

Loving Like Abraham

Series: Love


Heard any great love songs lately?

I drive a 1970 ford pickup with no radio. I was headed to a lunch meeting the other day and stopped at a light alongside a more modern ride (but not as stylish as mine!) that had really good speakers. Know what I mean? He was kind enough to play his music for the entire county. I couldn’t tell who was singing, but it went something like: “O baby, I love you, baby, baby, baby, you and me, yea, O baby; I would give it all up for you, because I love you…” You get the idea. I pulled into the restaurant thinking about how lyrics and melody join forces to drive home a point – to shape perspective.

One of the most popular words in musical lyrics of virtually every kind is the word love. Most of the time love is set in an emotional or romantic context. Literally thousands of songs set to all kinds of melodies celebrate, lament, and ponder the emotional aspect of love. Whether it’s a country or a pop rock song, the lyrics reach into our hearts and appeal to our feelings. Feelings are good in and of themselves. But, many of the song lyrics about love push emotion past principle. What we feel about someone or a situation is prioritized above what a principled perspective of the situation calls for. Who can forget the old country song lyric “If lov’n you is wrong, I don’t want to be right?” Pleasure is preferred over principle.

When I think about the biblical perspective of love, I am confronted with how different it is from how it is portrayed in the music industry and our culture in general. Mature love isn’t based on feelings. It is based on the gospel story and on the principles that grow out of it. I am humbled and awed every time I hear the story of Abraham and Isaac. In Genesis 22:2 God said to Abraham, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will show you.” I stagger before the magnitude of that request. I respected Abraham before I had children. Four children later, my respect is exponentially greater! I can’t begin to imagine what he “felt” at that moment. He had to prepare a travel party and journey for three days. He had to travel and think about what he was about to do. As the story climaxes, God intervenes and stays Abraham’s hand. Soon afterward, God says, “…for now I know that you fear God seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.” Abraham loved God more than anything. More than the questions that raced through his mind about the absurdity of God’s request. More than the tender moments he had shared with Isaac. More than the feelings that were beating down the door of his mind and pressuring him to question the sanity of such a request. He loved God with all of his heart, soul, strength and mind.

That kind of love is a long way from the radios and ipods of our day. As I write this I can’t help but think about some people I know who faced mature love moments in 2010 and how they exemplified principled love over the emotional unprincipled version we see in our culture. They chose the right words. They turned the other cheek. They said “no” in moments of temptation. They stood their ground in loneliness. They gave more than the hecklers around them and got overlooked when “atta boys” got passed out. They walked roads that others didn’t want to travel. John, Mary, Elizabeth, Lorrie, Colt, Payden, Carla, James, …and…well…you get the idea. I could list a hundred. They plodded on embracing what was right in moments that didn’t feel too good. They loved God and respected his calling of them more than abandoning their principles for a moment of fleshly gratification. And, God was watching. He has always noticed His people doing the extraordinary in the corners of everyday life. Peter reminded suffering people who were struggling to love the Lord in trying times: “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” A lot more is going on in moments of trial than meets the eye!

Loving like that is hard. It’s always been hard. But, the upside is beyond fantastic. It’s the stuff of the cross and resurrection. It’s what participating in the “fellowship of His sufferings” is all about. And, it is remarkably bright when it begins to take form in a world that sees so much of the other kind of love. I thank God for Abraham’s story. And, I thank God for other stories that happen around us everyday in the lives of people near and dear to us. People who show us how to live a love that is anchored in the majesty, grace and promises of the Lord Jesus Christ.

O Father, everyday we can feel the pull of cultural messages and influences toward a version of love that is so contrary to who you are. Fortify our hearts with your kind of love and teach us through your word and through the examples we see in other believers how to give ourselves over to a love that honors you in all that we do. Assure our hearts of the blessing that is found in this kind of love. It is through the One who loved us all the way we give you our thanks....Amen.

Randy Daugherty
Stephenville, Texas

Love: Let's Get Real

Series: Love

If someone asked you to name just one thing that sets you apart because you are a Christian, what would it be? Is it because we always wear the appropriate thing to church on Sunday? Or make sure we are at the building every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday night? Or what about our casseroles, a good Christian can make a great Chicken Spaghetti, right? No tattoos? No piercings (except on the ears ladies, we all know that’s OK!)? Did you read the latest Christian fiction? These are all the things that make us stand out as Christians… Right?? And if these aren’t the things that make us Christians, why do we spend so much time on them?


We are not Christians because we follow all the right rules, we are Christians because we love… unreasonably and without judgment. Matthew 22:37-40 says:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”


We have been named hypocrites, and for good reason. We preach a New Testament religion, with love at its center, and yet we constantly set ourselves above those we should be serving. We sing about having a servant’s heart, but we don’t mean it. We want to serve those we deem worthy, or those who give us the proper amount of gratitude. We justify our selfishness by saying things like “I don’t feel safe. They’re probably going to use my money to buy alcohol. They just ask for handouts because they are lazy.” Is this how we show God’s love? Mother Teresa has said “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” In the Old Testament, God knew that this was an issue and would continue to be one, and so He left us with this command:

7 If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. 8 Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. 9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the LORD against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. 10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart… 11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. (Deuteronomy 15:7-15)


What are the wicked thoughts God would ask us to refrain from? What does He feel when we turn our backs on the poor? (Or the teens with the foul language? Or the parents with children that are filthy and misbehaved? Or the elderly? The imprisoned? The depressed? ) What does he think of us when we love them?

The greatest of the commandments is Love… How have we managed to forget this simple four letter word? How have we managed to replace LOVE with DUTY? God does not call us to be safe with our rules in our churches, but to go out and love the people in the world. Just as they are. God does not ask us to change people so that they can follow our rules, He tells us to love them. The change that must occur in someone’s heart in order to follow God is not our responsibility… ours is to love. Do we think so little of God that we believe He cannot work on someone’s heart without our interference?

But Love is difficult; it requires us to put aside prejudice, step into uncomfortable situations, and let go of our need to separate ourselves from those who are different or who we don’t understand. And we have shown that we are incapable of doing this alone.

Dear God, I want you to be proud of me. I want to show your love to everyone around me. Please work on my heart, make me see others as You see them; Your children that I am ALWAYS called to love. Help me to stop judging people. I do not know their life, I do not know their struggles, only You do Lord. Change me to be the person You want me to be. Put me in situations that will challenge me, do not let me become complacent or blind to those who need your love the most. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Corey Rose
Santa Clara, California