L-O-V-E!

Tuesday 5/20/2014 3:36 AM

I woke this morning with Jaci soothing me by telling me everything was going to be okay.  I had been yelling in my sleep because of a bad dream.  In my dream I was yelling, “You just need to love each other! L-O-V-E!” to two groups of people who had large caliber rifles and were getting ready to shoot at each other because someone had brushed up against a car that was parked on the border line between two pieces of property that were owned by the respective groups.  Earlier in the dream there had been some words exchanged disputing the boundary line but eventually each group had run for their guns and now it seemed they wanted to settle it with violence.  I recognized the parties involved on both sides as personal friends, who were Christians, and I couldn’t believe they would resort to that type of violence over such an insignificant issue.

After waking I was so upset that I couldn’t get back to sleep.  I kept telling myself it was a bad dream but soon realized that it is reality in the world in which I live.  I believe Christians should be shouting, “You just need to love each other!  L-O-V-E!”, to those around us who are fighting and then follow that up with self-sacrificing, loving action.  But too often we are the ones shooting the weapons of prejudice, bigotry, and hatred trying to maintain the status quo rather than seeking justice for those who are oppressed.

Lord, forgive me for failing to love properly.  Forgive me for seeking only my own prosperity and forgetting about others, leaving them to fend for themselves in a world that is often stacked against them.  Forgive me for using weapons that destroy others rather than breaking through the walls that separate us by wielding the weapon of love.  Increase my capacity to love.