Last night we hosted our first neighborhood cul-de-sac bbq. It was great! Three new families have just moved in on our street. All of them almost young enough to be my children. It’s official now – we are the grandparents of the neighborhood and I am totally good with that. Lots of babies around here for me to love on and give back to their mommies and daddies. Great practice for grandparenthood….and gives me a chance to get my baby fixes 🙂
It was an awesome night of getting acquainted and finding out a little bit of people’s stories. Great fun. But one of the sweetest surprises of the night was when one of my neighbors whom I’ve been spending quite a bit of time with had a conversation with Abby. She made the comment, “I just love your mom so much. I don’t usually like to be around “religious” people, but I love hanging out with her.” Now, I don’t say that to brag. Although, I must admit, I’m thrilled that she feels that way about me. And I really don’t want to be considered a “religious” person. But I say it to bring up the truth that people aren’t drawn to others because they are “religious”. In fact, most often, they are turned off by the “R” word. They are drawn to love. People want to be loved. That’s how God created us. To love and be loved.
God has gotten a bad rap because of people who flaunt religion and fail at relationship. A “holier than thou” attitude that only pushes people away. It’s repulsive. It’s unwelcoming. And it completely contradicts how Jesus interacted with people. Jesus, who was the epitome of holiness and had every right to flaunt His superiority and sinless life, decided instead to love us. He walked with, lived with, cried with, laughed with, worked with the people He came to save. He is still doing that. He offers relationship, not religion. He offers love, not law. Real, not rules. He asks us to do life with Him. And in spending time with Him, in involving Him in every moment of our days, we start to become more like Him. Not haughty, arrogant or “better than”, but humble, loving and compassionate.
My neighbor doesn’t like me because of how “good” I am or how “good” I am at something. She knows that I’m a dork and have more than my fair share of faults and flaws. But she likes to spend time with me because she knows that she is loved. And even that love is not something that I generate on my own. It’s because I’m friends with the One who is the very definition of love. Jesus. So, in essence, she is not drawn to me at all. She is drawn to Him.
As she gets to know me, she will witness more of my mistakes and see more of my shortcomings. But beyond all of that, I hope she sees the love of the One who loves her so much more than I could ever convey.
A neighborhood BBQ. Simple. Spontaneous. And a good reminder that God often shows up more in our weaknesses than our strengths and expresses Himself every day through relationship – with Him and with others.
1 John 4:8 – “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:19 – “We love each other because he loved us first.”
James 1:27 – “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…”
