How do you love little? I think to answer that question, we need to answer, "How do you love big?"
Most everyone is familiar with 'The Love Chapter' in 1 Corinthians...we've heard it at almost every wedding we've ever attended. But, instead of quoting it word for word, I'm going to paraphrase. This is is no way trying to change God's Word, this is just how I interpret verses 4 through 8 in a simple-minded way:
Love puts up with annoyances, yet is still kind; love does not lust; love does not flaunt itself seeking men's applause; love is not vulgar, and is not self-centered; love does not react in anger, there is nothing evil in love; love does not put up with wrong, but rejoices in truth; it endures all things. LOVE NEVER FAILS.
That's a Big Love. That's a Real Love. But is that how we love? I would venture to say that for most of us, we don't make it past the first line.
I'm going to take this Big Love a bit further now. What about our time? What about our talents? What about our money? Are we loving big with all of these?
To me, here's the answer to our first question; here's how to love little:
-Give God ten dollars a week when we're making six-hundred dollars a week.
-Pass up a church service to watch a movie we've been waiting to see.
-Spend 10 minutes in prayer and reading God's Word but watch an hour long CSI episode.
-Never help those that are in need of things we possess.
-Don't feed the hungry because 'They should get a job.'
You get the idea. But here's the other side of the fence: Loving big doesn't mean you give God 500 dollars a week when you make 550 dollars a week. Loving big doesn't mean you are in church every time the doors are unlocked. Loving big isn't spending 20 hours a day with God. Loving big isn't paying our house off and giving it to a homeless person. That would be too easy.
Loving big means that all we do...we do it with kindness; we do it without seeking praise for ourselves; we give God our tithes not wondering how we're going to pay our bills this month, but rejoicing in the fact that even if we lose all we have, we had an opportunity to give a little bit back; we attend church without any reservations; we feed the hungry because we realize that could have just as easily been us sitting on that street.
'With great power comes great responsibility." Are we showing our share of responsibility?
Have we only been forgiven of little? If you consider eternity small, then yes.
God gave a Big Love so that we could Love Big. Do we care enough about our Christ to do it?
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