Bigger Than MeSample

I have a Hindu friend. He knew I had seriously changed my approach to life after I went to Africa, and my remarks about Jesus had aroused his interest. He wanted to know more about Him. Then, fairly recently, I received an anxious voicemail. My friend had an important question about God, he said, and he wanted to meet right away to talk about it. At breakfast the next morning he said, “I now know that the greatest of all the commandments is to love God with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind. But my question is, how do I do that?” My mind went totally blank. Such a simple question. So, why was my mind blank? I left and pondered this question. How do I actively and truly love God? We think of love as a feeling, but I know that in this case it’s more than that. I have to do something. But what? How do I show God that I indeed love Him? 

I called one of the compilers of The Life of Jesus, my friend and mentor in Washington, DC. He said to me, “You’ll find it in Matthew 22.”As he waited over the telephone line, I flipped to that chapter and read. When I finished reading, my friend said, quite simply, “There you go.” And I saw it. For the first time, I saw the strategy Jesus was laying out for loving God. He gave the greatest commandment—one my Hindu friend had focused on—but immediately offered the second that was “like it”: Love your neighbor as yourself. Clearly the two are tied in together. 

While some would answer my Hindu friend’s question in terms of prayer and worship, here is the best answer I can produce: while those are good ways to show my love to God, the best demonstration of that love comes when I love my neighbor. Of course, that simply raises another question, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus gave His answer by describing the actions of the Good Samaritan—someone who came to the aid of a man who was not only in distress but who was also someone others would ignore. This tells me that loving God means loving my neighbor which, in turn, means offering a hand to those who need it deeply—no matter who they are. 

What’s God’s Purpose for you being on this planet? That’s a huge question. That’s a question that’s bigger than you. Start the journey; visit biggerthanmebook.com for a free sample of Bigger Than Me by Ward Brehm.