Faith & Insight: Love one another

Jesus said: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

I see things going around the world today that really scares me for the future. We have people protesting for peace, but they’re not peaceful protests. People are not taking personal responsibility and there’s no respect for authority. There’s violence in our streets and there does not seem to be simple answers.

Maybe if we elect this person or this person we can change things. While change is good, but if you’re walking on a narrow cliff you don’t want to change the wrong way. Change may be the thing that destroys us. Maybe we don’t need change; maybe we need Jesus.

It’s not a political victory that will change this world for the better. We must change. And when I say “we” I mean ME. I must change. I must change my heart and how I treat people and, yes, you must change, too.

If we all change our hearts and start looking at our own personal responsibility at how we can help our neighbor that may not be as far along as we are, then the world sees change for the better.

Friends, the truth is, only Jesus can change our hearts. Jesus doesn’t put requirements on his love. I’m not talking about salvation I’m talking about the love of Christ. Jesus loves you whether you love him back or not. It doesn’t matter what political party you belong to, what religion you are, or what you do for a living, Jesus loves you. And if we’re Christ followers then we should love without discrimination. We should not wait until people resemble us to love them.

There’s a saying attributed to Mother Teresa: “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” It’s true alone we can’t change the world, but if we put as much effort into practical acts of love with the few people twe know, if we reach out a helping hand to a couple people who are different than us, if we spend a few hours a month working at a food bank or volunteering to work with underprivileged kids, we can create a ripple that reaches further than you have ever imagined.

Let’s let Jesus change our hearts. Then we can put more energy into being the change we need and less into demanding others change and we will see how the world around us will change.

Captain Mark Cyr is pastor of The Salvation Army, 661 Colorado St. Carson City, NV 89701. For information, go to carsoncitysalarmy.org.