Becoming Love

I'm 18 years old. To be exact I've been alive for 6,598 days. I've traveled to four different states and one other country. I've come into contact with A LOT of people. I kind of wish I could know the exact amount.

A few months ago, I helped out at the San Diego Half Marathon. I mean, I didn't do much. I mostly picked up trash and got to talk to the people that finished the marathon. We got to hear about the training process, how many marathons some of the people had done, etc. There was even a guy who ran the entire marathon in a military uniform. He had pictures of people who had passed away in war on his back and it said "I'm running in memory of..." I'm a pretty shy person, but talking to these people amazed me. Each of them that finished the marathon had a different story, a different process that had gotten them there. I was mind blown.

It's crazy to wrap your head around the fact that each and every person you see has a full life story.

It's amazing that there are over seven billion different life stories. Each day is experienced differently by over seven billion people.

A lot of the time we get so caught up in ourselves and our stories that we forget that we're not the only ones. Have you ever come across a person that has such a bad attitude, you just want to shake them and tell them how annoying it is? I think we all have, but have you ever stopped to consider what happened in their lives that made them that way? We rarely do.

You never know what people have dealt with or what they're going through at that time. Just because they're keeping a mask of composure, doesn't mean they aren't feeling things inside. I know that when something is going on with me and I'm in a bad mood, the last thing that I want is for someone to shake me, to isolate me, to make me feel like there's something wrong with me.

SO IN SUMMARY: You never know what someone is going through. You never know what kinds of obstacles they had to overcome to get to where they are. You never know what kind of effect your actions could take on them. You never know what it takes to push them over the edge. Put yourselves in their shoes.

That's why it's so so important to spread love, to be understanding, to be patient, to smile at strangers, to positively affirm people.

We are loved by a God who will stop at nothing to prove it to us.

We have the opportunity every single day to further the kingdom by showing others what God's love and grace feels like. Take advantage of that opportunity. BECOME LOVE.

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." (John 15:12)
"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." (Ephesians 4:2)
"We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19)
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." (1 John 3:16)