One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that “he is one, and besides him there is no other”; and “to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength”, and “to love one’s neighbour as oneself”,—this is much more important than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’ When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that no one dared to ask him anyOne of the first things we did when I began my ministry at UCC Judd is come up with a theme for our group. We discussed for weeks what it was the Youth wanted to learn about most and what they wanted to be "identified" as (identified is NOT the same as labeled). They told us learning more about what Jesus' message is was the most important. So we discussed further what they thought it should be and how we could best live the message once we figured out what it was.
In our discussions we soon discovered that what Jesus taught could be broken down into three main ideas; love God, love others, and love ourselves. We came to understand that unless we could accomplish all three at some level we couldn't be a complete person. That didn't mean we had to have a complete understanding of what all three types of love meant, rather we agreed that we only had to understand that we need all three loves to know what Jesus' message is.
The class I help with at the high school is reading "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. As we read the book we see how Morrie's nearness to death brings about the realization that life is more than the accumulation of riches. Life is, according to Morrie, about making those around you rich in things like self-respect, self acceptance, and self reliance. Morrie helps us understand that in bringing these types of riches to others we find a freedom from the things that keep us stuck in the rut we falsely call a life.
Jesus has the same message for us. In the making of other people's life better we find our own life to be richer and somehow this brings us closer to God. Of course for some of us it's the growing closer to God that helps us realize our purpose of making other lives better and therefore enriching our own. And sometimes we need to love ourselves first, which lead us to a better relationship with others and God. Either way we need all three. Where we start and the reason we start there really doesn't matter.
Start somewhere and soon you'll be living a life feeling a little, or a lot, more complete.
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