What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 
JAMES 4:14 

Most of us have gone on vacation before and asked a college student down the street to house-sit while we're away. The house-sitters know they don't own the place. 

How wild would it be if we returned to our house to find they had knocked out a wall to begin renovations? We might not have explicitly told them not to renovate or throw block parties, but we bring them in with the understand­ing that the house isn't their playground. They didn't buy it and it's not their place to do whatever they wish. They're overseers until the owners come back, that's all. 

I like to think of our lives the same way. We didn't earn this life. We don't own our bodies or the world in which we find ourselves. Out of the overflow of God's love, He created us and gave us the opportunity to take care of a small space in the world for a while. He gave us gifts and bodies arid belongings, all entrusted to us for a time so we could give love to more people. It's actually a huge responsibility when you think about it. We were entrusted with God's precious creation so we could preserve what's beautiful and welcome more people into a life of abundance. 

If you find yourself giving in to a sense of greed and entitlement, remember the world isn't ours for the taking. We're just stewards meant to pass it on better than we found it. We've been given a gift to be built upon and shared. All we can do in exchange is give it away. 

What can you do today to leave something better than you found it? 

Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 
MATTHEW 25 29 

There's a story in the Bible about a widow who gave a small amount of money, and Jesus said she gave more than those who gave a lot. To Jesus, the widow's "mites" were worth more to the kingdom of heaven than all the gold bars in Fort Knox. Why is that? It's probably because God cares more about the heart of the giver than the actual amount. 

How should we give our "time, talents, and treasure" to the people around us? How should we give our love? These are real questions we all have at some point. If we're being honest, most of us live with the fear that there isn't enough to go around, and we have to fight to get what's ours. In a culture that thrives on consumerism, we're suckers for believing we don't have enough of whatever someone is trying to sell us. We start to believe we need more money, more education, more dish soap, or more attractive qualities than the person next to us, and it's easy to give way to these fears and store up, save, and withhold. 

Without realizing it, this affects the way we give our love away too. We love people by giving away our time, our attention, our money, and our personal space. And in a world where we're told to store up and gain more in order to get ahead, it's easy to slip into fear that we'll run out if we're not careful. 

Whatever you have to give, give it lavishly and generously. Be a little reck­less with your love. We're rivers, not reservoirs. God sees the golden heart that gives sacrificially, no matter the amount. 

What reckless act of love can you do today? 

A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many 
guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those 
who had been invited. "Come, for everything is now ready." 
LUKE 14:16-17 

We've all attended a holiday with friends or family when we knew we weren't really wanted. The moment you walk in the door, you see forced smiles and hear the fake tone of voice that sounds like a news anchor trying to convince you they care. We know we're a nuisance before we sit down at the table. We all know what it's like to be invited out of a sense of obligation. It can be spotted in an instant. 

The same thing happens in our churches too. People feel like they're sup­posed to invite everyone because perhaps they read a story in the Bible about a wedding feast and inviting everyone to it. Here's the problem: they don't know what to do when people take them up on the offer. We don't know what to tell the kids about the person who uses salty language because they don't know the Christian speak or the one who expresses their love in ways we don't approve of.

We tell people to "come as they are," but only if they'll change enough to make us comfortable once they arrive. That's not how love works. Love says we need you even more if you're different from the rest of us . Love says everyone has something to teach us, and God will use people from the edges to expand our understanding of His grace right in the middle of where we live. Love says everyone who's invited is truly wanted. 

We're meeting people at the starting line, not the finish line. We shouldn't say everyone's invited if we're going to act like they're not welcome when they come.

Who have you been treating like they're not welcome? 

Love your enemies. do good to those who hate you. bless those who curse you. pray for those who mistreat you. 
LUKE 6:27-28 

We have a family friend who exploded our understanding oflove with her bak­ing. She read Jesus' words about loving your enemies, and she started praying about what it might look like for her to love enemies in her ever yday life. She knew enemies aren't like villains in the movies; they're the ones we gossip about because we're jealous or the ones who disagree with us about things close to our hearts. 

She decided to start baking things for people who got under her skin. She baked cookies for the woman who made her feel like a bad parent. She dropped off a cake for the neighbors who did loud yardwork at seven o'clock on Saturday mornings. She baked fresh bread for a family friend who posted offensive comments on social media. 

No one knows she bakes things for people who get under her skin, because she doesn't announce it. It's not a passive-aggressive statement where she gives baked goods and everyone knows what she really means. It's just her quiet way of actively loving people she would be quick to write off if she wasn't intentional. 

Picking a fight is easy. Loving each other when we disagree is how we grow. When Jesus told us to love our enemies, He challenged us to draw close to the peo􀀟le we're tempted to push away. He knew nothing would change hearts and minds more than selfless love for other people. 

Go for the ones who get under your skin, and experience the kind of love Jesus talks about. 

Who gets under your skin? How can you treat them differently today? 

You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 
EPHESIANS 2:19-20 

Over the years, I've become friends with a lot of people who are or have been in poverty. Some of them live in other countries, and some live here in America, but all of them ended up in poverty for reasons outside their control. They were given a poor education or no education at all. Some were arrested for small crimes as teenagers, and their records made it difficult to get a job for the rest of their lives. There are a lot of reasons people end up in a rough place, but all of them need the help of a community to get them back on their feet.

 
It's easy to have opinions about people who need help. You hear people from a relational distance say that "helping hurts," or they wonder aloud why unemployed people don't work a little harder to get a job. But when you come alongside people and walk with them for a while, you learn that helping actually helps. 

Relationships have the power to transform us in ways opinions never will. If we talk about a group of people without developing a relationship with them, we're bound to get it wrong. But when we make new friends, we find we're changed in the process. We might help them by connecting them with a job, and they might help us by exploding our preconceived notions about the disadvantaged so more love can get in. We find out we need grace for all the ways we had mischaracterized people. 

If there's a group you've made some assumptions about, go make some new friends. You'll meet Jesus in one another. 

Who have you made assumptions about? How can you reach out to them in friendship? 

Love is patient, love is kind. 
1 CORINTHIANS 13:4 

There's a scene in movies when someone leaves a job they hate and smashes all the office supplies on the way out. If they're architects, they take a bat to all the models. If they're administrative assistants, they smash copy machines and steal a stapler. Usually some screaming or soapboxing is involved. 

It's always exaggerated in the movies, but we do these kinds of things in our lives too. We hear about the "tell-all" book after a disgruntled executive leaves an organization. We see a friend hurt in a relationship turn to social media to slander the person who did it. We live with the illusion that we can cut ties with people without it affecting anyone for the long term. We think we can leave and build a different life with people who are easier to get along with and easier to love. 

We've forgotten to live like we're going to be spending eternity together. When Jesus talked about the kingdom of heaven, He wasn't talking about a place somewhere up in the clouds with harps and chubby angels. He said heaven was coming to earth and invited us to put His teaching into practice. When we love the way He loved, forgiving our enemies and including those who have been pushed out, we bring a little more of heaven into the world. 

When you think about it, if eternity is all the time ever, we're already a part of eternity. Love is kind. Let's start treating each other like we'll be together for eternity, starting now. 

Who would you treat differently if you had an eternal perspective? 

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 
1 THESSALONIANS 5:18 

A friend of mine was confirmed for a government position in which he would lead the initiative to curtail human trafficking in the United States and around the world. I was lucky enough to attend the swearing-in ceremony. As amazing as that was, my favorite part was the end where my friend was given the floor to say a few words. It wasn't an acceptance speech he made. It was one filled with genuine gratitude. He reflected on the cast of people who helped him get to that point and how they shaped him. It was really beautiful. 

I'm sure we can all think of times when someone has done us a favor, maybe helped us get a job or loaned us some money. We call them in tears to say they'll never know how they changed our lives. Then we call them again. 

I'm always a fan of sending cookies, but most people don't want others to feel indebted to them. We simply help each other out in life because we recog­nize that we need each other. We do what we can, hoping the person we help will do what they can. When we give people a hand up, nothing would bring us more joy than seeing them take advantage of opportunities to do the same for other people. We don't need to hear praise as much as we want to see them multiplying that love. 

We don't need to make an acceptance speech to receive some grace or a keynote when we give a little. Living grateful lives and giving away what we received in equal measure is enough. 

What are you grateful to God for today? 

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:20

You don't have to even think about your first moves every morning. You turn on the coffee or pick up your cellphone from the nightstand. You feed the cat or crack open the door to see your kids. We do these things ritualistically because habits become hardwired into our brains and our bodies respond. It's the reason we can dial a friend on the phone without even thinking of the numbers we're pressing or pull out of our driveway and into our parking space at work without remembering much of the drive at all. 

We're usually familiar with our physical habits, but how much thought do you give to your spiritual habits? I don't mean habits like praying or reading the Bible, though those are great. I mean habits of finding joy, hope, and peace. Jesus said we could have peace even if there's chaos all around us. He said we could be hopeful even when life looks pretty bleak. These are characteristics that take some practice to get right. 

Jesus knew the habits of our hearts would lead to changes in the way we live. If we find peace within ourselves, we'll naturally become peacemakers in the world around us. When we pray with hope and look for it in the little things, we begin to walk in hope, and it spreads to the people around us. Where great joy is a habit, extravagant love is a reflex. 

We won't love well if we're in the habit of being negative or cynical. Maybe you're thinking I'm just a realist. Just remember that God sees what is and what will be, and it usually starts with the hope we have inside. Practice plenty of that. 

What habit of joy, hope, or peace can you start today? 

I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. 
PSALM 69:30 

They say you can divide the world into two types of people: those who see the glass as half full and those who see it as half empty. But I don't see this optimism or pessimism. To me, it's more about gratitude. Instead of one or the other, I tend to think, Wow, I've got something in my glass. 

I have a friend who wakes up every day and lists ten things he's grateful for. It could be the sunrise or his family or the cup of coffee he's about to drink. It could be health, his spouse, or his favorite flavor of ice cream. Whatever is on the list is less important than making the list itself When we take a moment to be grateful, we realize how much we have, and it leads to thankfulness. 

Now, I'm not a Pollyanna. There are hard days, difficult circumstances, and tragic moments. We've all had them and been with friends through them. But I believe those are outnumbered by the things we can be grateful for. 

Remember the time in the Bible when the disciples were trying to rank themselves and figure out who was going to sit closest to Jesus in heaven? "How full is my glass?" and "Is my glass better than the next guy's glass?" is what they were asking. Instead of giving in to our tendency to focus on what we don't have, Jesus simply says to us, "You have Me." And if that's not enough to fill you, nothing will be. Let's be grateful people, and the love of Jesus will spill out of our lives. 

What's your outlook on your life right now? How can you be more grateful? 

You have heard that it was said, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. 
MATTHEW 5:43-45 

I've started a new practice that has revolutionized the way I see people I don't agree with. If I hear a pastor or politician say something really offensive, I send them a cake pop. I just scribble a note to say I was thinking about them and thought maybe they would enjoy a cake pop as much as I do. It's not a passive-aggressive thing. I can't lie, I just love cake pops. If someone lets it rip on social media, I send them a few Jolly Ranchers and tell them to have a great day. I love those too. It takes about five minutes. I figure people who attack others are probably pretty unhappy, and cake pops and Jolly Ranchers might brighten their day. 

When Jesus told us to love our enemies, He wanted us to apply the term broadly. I know this because He also told us to love our friends and neighbors. Between our friends, neighbors, and enemies, that should include just about everyone. The problem is that we scoot around His command by just being "polite" to people who annoy us. They're not necessarily our friends or our enemies-they're just people we keep our distance from. They're watchdogs in a world where we all need a little more grace. They're the cynics where we need champions. They're just hard to be around. 

It's a true statement that the most difficult people to love are usually the ones who need it most. Love doesn't dishonor others; it finds a way to lift them up even when they actively push you down. The way we treat people we disagree with the most is a report card on our faith. It's hard to know where to start, but we need to begin anyway. Why not send someone who's been difficult a cake pop? It couldn't hurt. 

Who do you know who needs a cake pop? 

Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. 
PROVERBS 4:25 

When my friend Alice started following Jesus, she had no idea the path would lead her to a position of leadership at a company with thousands of employees. But she took her faith into her leadership role, and now she tries to make all her employees feel loved and wanted at work. A lot of these people would never go to church, but they get to see Jesus every day because they see how Alice treats everyone around her. The same can be true for all of us, no matter what role we find ourselves in. 

Following Jesus looks different for each of us. A lot of people think they'll have to move across the world to become a missionary or start homeschooling their kids if they get serious about following Jesus. But He didn't create us to fit into molds that would have us all turn out the same. He created us with special gifts and passions that are uniquely suited to meet different needs in the world. We don't need to compare different paths to decide which one's right, because God already said He wants us on the ones that lead to Him. 

Don't let the path of ocher people's lives make you second-guess your own. There are millions of people, from all walks of life, who God wants co meet with His message of love. If you take Jesus to the people around you, and I take His love to the ones around me, we'll cover a lot more ground. 

In what ways have other people's paths distracted you from your own? 

My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working. 
JOHN 5:17 

If you've ever walked with someone through recovery from substance abuse, you know detox is one of the hardest and scariest parts of the process. When people first stop turning to their addiction, they go through withdrawals, and it can cause them to feel paranoid, angry, anxious, and depressed. Some people sweat profusely, and others can't sleep a wink. No one ever feels better the week after they enter recovery, but enduring the pain is the only path co life. It means toxins are leaving the body so it can begin to heal. 

When we try to measure our spiritual health based on how we feel, we usually end up with a wrong diagnosis. We've all tried to find our identity in the wrong places, whether it's success or money or performance or approval. And when we take Jesus up on His offer to put Him above everything else, we go through a sort of detox. 

We have to give up some things we've come to depend on. It means we're being nurtured back to spiritual health because we weren't created to find our worth by comparing ourselves to other people, but it takes some time to get used to God's way of love. 

The measure of the good God is doing in our lives isn't always how we're feeling about it. The pain might be a sign of progress, and if we stick with love long enough, we'll find out the fruit of it is life. 

What good is God doing in your life right now? 

A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. 
PROVERBS 11:25 

There are few places like parking lots to bring out the worst in us. It's the only place where teenagers cut off elderly people without a second thought. People throw their arms up and signal out their windows, exasperated at the thought of someone else getting ten feet closer to the building. Parking lots show us what we're made of. 

There's several churches I've been to where the people seem to be fighting over the worst parking spots. The staff, the pastor, the people all park as far away from the building as possible so another person can get a little closer. 

They don't make a big deal out of it either. In fact, no one really even knows. It's a beautiful picture of what the church is really about. These small acts sig­nal a larger decision so many have made to follow Jesus' teaching of becoming servants, being the first to sign up to be last. Most of us will never face a choice to physically give our lives for another person. But we can die to ourselves by 
making small sacrifices, day in and day out, to put other people first. 

Life becomes an adventure when we start to view every moment as an invitation to celebrate other people. If you make it a point to find opportunities to put others first, you'll never run out of chances. In a world where everyone competes for the best spot, sign up to be last and watch what happens next. And here's the best part: if we do it right, nobody will ever know. 

Who can you celebrate today? 

In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. 
MATTHEW 7:12 

When my kids were in junior high and high school, I got flashbacks of what it's like to be in an environment with an invisible scoreboard always keeping track of who's popular and who's not. Who has a date to prom and who will be at home watching television game shows with their parents. Who has a new pimple or who scored the winning basket. There's no tenure track to being accepted. Kids in those ages are trapped in a game where they're constantly wondering if they are in or out. 

We might shrug it off when kids do it, chalking it up to immaturity, but we grownups are just as guilty of transactional relationships. People seek out those who are more successful or attractive and identify with them because it makes them feel better about their own image. Or we trade shallow flattery or professional connections in hopes of advancing our careers. Sometimes people give money simply so their names will show up on donor lists and they'll look more generous. 

The right thing with the wrong motive is the wrong thing. When Jesus told us to love people, He wanted us to give ourselves away simply because other people are worth it. Jesus befriended people because He valued them, not because He wanted something from them. He gave to them because they were in need, not because He wanted anyone to notice. He knew real love was about lifting other people up so they could flourish, not so we'd look good in the process. 

Don't be tempted by the allure of transactional relationships. God approached us with arms open wide, asking nothing in return, so we could show that same love to the people around us. 

Who have you been treating like a transaction recently?

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 
JOHN 1:14 

A lot of people don't know this about me, but I typically don't set meetings. As in, you can try to schedule a meeting with me and I probably won't put it on my calendar. There are a few scheduled things I didn't miss, like my wedding day or the groundbreaking ceremony for one of our Love Does schools. Beyond that, though, there's a reason I don't set meetings. It's because I want the people in my life to know they can have my attention anytime they need it. I just tell them to get ahold of me whenever it's good for them. 

We can't love people unless we make it possible for them to get ahold of us. With all the technology we have, it's become easier to insulate ourselves. We can like a photo or make a comment and go months (or years) without having a real conversation. 

But Jesus showed us another way by welcoming interruptions. Most of His interactions with other people happened when He was on his way somewhere else. He was usually stopped by someone in need, and rather than shrugging them off to keep up his p;ice, He always took the time to listen. He showed them they were important enough to take a detour from His plans. 

If the God of the universe c􀃰uld stop what He was doing to hear the needs of other people, we can answer our phones. Go for a week without sending anyone to voicemail. It'll change your life. 

We determine how much influence we'll have when we decide how available we'll be. Don't get so focused on your to-do list that you neglect those who cross your path along the way. Every time you answer the phone and say hello, you've just answered most of the questions people have about how much you care. 

What will you do today to be more available to others? 

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 
LUKE 6:38 

I read a story about a young girl diagnosed with a rare disease. Her days quickly went from going to school and playing in the yard to lying in hospital beds tangled with tubes. The doctors ran test after test and concluded she needed an extensive blood transfusion to survive. But finding a matching donor was going to be tough. The parents were tested, but the results came back negative. She had a little brother, and he was a match because they were family, which made him the best candidate. The parents kept this information to themselves until there were no other options. 

One night while tucking him into bed, they told him. They didn't ask him directly if he would do the procedure, since that would be too much pressure. But he could read between the lines and said, "Can I have the night to think about it?" The next morning, he told his parents he would do it. The siblings were soon sharing a hospital room with tubes running between their beds. As the transfusion was about to begin, the little boy waved the doctor over. 

"Yes?" the doctor said. The boy asked, "How soon will it be before I die?" You see, the little boy thought that by helping his sister, he would have to give up his own life. And he said yes anyway. 

Few of us will ever have to face this kind of choice. But all of us will get the chance every day to do what it takes to get people what they need. Will it be hard? You bet. Will it be uncertain and sometimes scary? Of course. Jesus must have felt the same way. Yet when God gave Jesus the chance to give everything for us, He didn't hesitate. He jumped out of heaven to do it. 

Who are you willing to sacrifice for? 

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither-whatever they do prospers. 
PSALM 1:3 

When we have friends up to the lodge in Canada, sometimes everyone recog­nizes someone as an artist or a mystic or a poet. They're thoughtful and quiet. They listen and rub their chins a lot. Because I wake up waving my arms, I'm thankful for the contrast that is apparent when we have an artist-mystic-poet with us. We'll do these devotionals overlooking the inlet, and I'll ask this person to read a poem or a passage of the Bible. When they do it, it feels more meaningful and engaging. They make us all feel at ease and drawn into deeper waters. I have no idea how, but I'm grateful. 

Because of people like this, I decided to spend some time in the psalms. David was a poet, and he kept it incredibly real about his hopes, fears, doubts, and questions. The psalms say things we're often too afraid to say out loud or too busy to notice. The psalms give us a vocabulary for sharing secret thoughts and teach us what hope looks like when we're having trouble finding it. 

I think God gave us the psalms to remind us our hearts matter. In a world where ideas, doctrine, busyness, and success get so much recognition, we forgo an "inner life," and in doing so, we neglect our emotions. God wants a relation­ship with us. And relationships involve an emotional connection.

If your life is feeling wrung out and a little empty, turn to a poet or a musi­cian who has tuned into the deeper things. Open up the psalms. They can help us feel our way back to God. 

How can you nurture your inner life today? 

A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 
LUKE 18:18 

A well-off guy approached Jesus and asked him what it would take to get eter­nal life. He thought he had the means to earn his ticket, but Jesus surprised him: "Sell all your stuff, give to the poor, and follow Me." It sounds demand­ing, but Jesus was showing this guy the value of traveling with a light backpack. 

If you were to take the backpack of your life and dump it onto your bed, what would you find? Is your job something you couldn't give up? What about that girlfriend or boyfriend? Or the house or city you live in? I know, this is a tough exercise. I really feel for this guy who was so bold to ask Jesus the ques­tion. He didn't get an easy answer-and I don't think we'll find easy answers either. 

As followers of Jesus, we're invited to leave everything behind and follow Him. To travel light. But our nature and the world tug us back. Our insecurity loads us up with a bunch of things we don't need. We don't carry these because we need them; we pack them around because we have a hard time putting them down. I'm not suggesting that God wants us to explode our lives as we know them ... but I also think He wants us to blow a couple of things up. I think He wants us to offload and walk away from anything that's keeping us from Him. 

To follow Jesus, we should learn to love big and pack light. The less we carry of our worries, stuff, personal vendettas, and poisonous relationships, the freer we'll be to explore the frontiers oflove. 
 

What do you need to get rid of so you can travel lighter today? 

He looked around at them in anger ... deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts. 
MARK 3:5 

We often talk about Jesus as the Savior or an extraordinary teacher, but we rarely talk about Jesus as a first-class troublemaker. The truth is, Jesus was always in trouble. He slipped away from His parents when He was young for a couple of days and got in trouble for it. The religious people in His day fol­lowed Him wherever He went, eager to catch Him in a lie or to witness Him breaking Hebrew laws. The reason they were trying to set Him up was simple. The Israelites had expanded on the original Laws God gave them directly. I'm pretty sure Jesus could pull rank, but He didn't. 

On seven different occasions we know about, Jesus healed people on the Sabbath. It might not sound controversial to us now, but back then working on the Sabbath was punishable by death. Jesus didn't care. He did what His Father told Him to do. Sometimes in order to obey God you need to disobey Pharaoh. One day Jesus walked into the temple and saw a man with a withered hand, and He asked the religious leaders if it was better to do good or evil on the Sabbath, to save life or kill it. After He healed the man, the religious leaders went out and plotted how they would kill Him. 

Jesus was an affront to the Pharisees because He was more concerned about people who were in desperate need than how the religious leaders were feeling about it. He was more concerned with helping people than staying in the leaders' good graces. 

It can be tempting to base our behavior on the approval of the people around us. But love calls us to be more concerned about the vulnerable than other people's opinions about us. Love cares more about who's hurting than who's watching. 

How is fear of others' opinions holding you back from living love like Jesus did? 

Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 
LUKE 6:30 

I love books. I love looking at them on my shelves and thinking about the lessons I learned from authors I respect. They're not like trophies-they're beautiful reminders. Lots of them have been signed by the authors, which makes them even more special to me. 

I refuse to loan people books. I just give them to them instead. When I loaned books, I spent a weird amount of time worrying about whether I'd get them back. The person would move or accidentally lose it or use the paper to line the bottom of a bird cage. The fix was simple. Insi:ead of fretting or asking about a book a few months later, I just tell them it's all theirs and ask them to give it to someone else when they're done. It's been one of the single most freeing things I've done. 

Here's the thing: no one can take from us what we're willing to freely give. This is what Jesus was getting at when He said if someone tries to sue you for your shirt, hand over your jacket too. Instead of fighting back, trying to preserve what's rightfully ours, Jesus urged us to hold our possessions loosely because people are always more important-even people who wrong us. I don't think He wanted us to be distracted by keeping track of so many things-who owes us, who wronged us, who ignored us. 

Truth be known, it's easy to hold things loosely when it's just books we've read, but it can be harder to give freely of more valuable things people take from us, like our reputation. When someone publicly does wrong by us, it's hard not to tear into their character in response or log the incident away to think about often. But Jesus said if someone slaps us on the cheek, offer the other one as well. It's more important to be like Jesus than to remember all who owe you a book, an apology, or more time. 

In these situations, God knows what's going on, and He'll be the one to set things straight someday. Maybe we'll know about it; maybe we won't. But that's not the point. Our character will speak for itself, and love will drown out everything else. Our part of the deal is as easy as this: keep letting go of whatever is distracting us from Him. 

What distractions are keeping you from Jesus? 

A time to be silent and a time to speak. 
ECCLESIASTES 3:7 

I was traveling for an event and had the television on in the morning while I was getting ready to leave the hotel. One of those sports talk shows was on, and some guys were passionately arguing about a quarterback's stats or a coach or whatever. I thought, I wonder if this is how they talk all the time? I imagined these guys at their homes around the breakfast table and the kids saying, "Dad, could you please just tone it down? You're ruining my Cheerios." 

These people we see on television or in the news or on viral videos who seem to scream over everyone else-there's got to be a different side to them. I got to test this theory when I had the chance to get to know someone who does one of those news talk shows. Talk about opinionated. As we became friends, though, I realized my hunch was right. He was more nuanced, dynamic, personable, and kind than he often came across in his job. Once we became friends, I realized there was a lot more to him than the opinions he shared with the public. 

Love doesn't need to be loud. It just needs to be more important to us than our opinions. Jesus had strong beliefs and He vocalized them often, but love was always His priority. We can afford to be wrong. We can even be loud once in a while. But keep it about love, not all the other noise.in the world. 

How can you use actions instead of words today? 

Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. 
MATTHEW 5:42 

I have a good friend who I respect a lot. He goes downtown with a sign chat reads "Free Hugs." He isn't kidding around. Every person who walks by him and wanes one, gets one. He's polite, but even with the people who try to dodge him, if it's appropriate he'll give them a hug too. He probably knows they needed a hug the most. 

It got me thinking about what happens when we decide our love isn't for everybody. What if our sign said Free Hugs and then had a list of qualifying conditions underneath it? What if the list had on it entire groups of people? What if it said no hugs for people who hold a particular view or behave in a way we disagree with? That wouldn't be so heartwarming, would it? 

Are there people in your life who are counting on your unconditional love? When they see you, do they see you reading an unspoken list of requirements they have to meet to receive love and acceptance from you? 

What God will do for us, if we're willing, is break down every barrier between us. He's demonstrated the kind of love chat erases all the lists. He didn't hold anything back, and we shouldn't either. 

God's not holding a sign that says Free Hugs, but He is calling out to us with a promise of freedom, acceptance, and love. As followers ofJesus, we can do the same for the people around us. The love we've been given is too big and too beautiful to be held back by our inhibitions or our old ways. Everyone gets a hug. 

Who can you surprise today with unconditional love? 

Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 
MATTHEW 18:3 

A holiday can hold a lot of conflicted feelings. It's a time of warmth and cele­bration, but sometimes the experience doesn't match the hope. We bring out the china that's gathered dust in our cabinets since last year's holiday gathering, and we cook old family recipes that make us nostalgic for a time when things seemed simpler than they do now. Sometimes, however, they can be just as complicated as they've always been. 

While we're stressing out at the adult table about the weird relative or fam­ily dynamic, have you noticed there's no tension over at the kids' table where they've got paper cups for lemonade and plastic forks for mac and cheese? No one there wishes things were different, because cousins and apple pie are dose by. Kids always bring an innocence to the party. They show us how to look past the mistakes people made this morning so we can have fun together in the afternoon. 

If Jesus were at our holiday celebrations, I bet He would be at the kids' table. When He was asked complicated questions, He would pick up a child and place them on His lap, then tell everyone to have faith like them. It's how He responded to questions about heaven and how He responded to a fight about who was the greatest. He always pointed to the kids to lead the way. 

We're all invited to move over from some of our big arguments to the kids' table, where Jesus is. We can choose to look past the rules we make up as we grow up. We can go past the surface conversations. We can say we're sorry, if that's needed. Do whatever it takes to get there. There's a small chair waiting for you. 

How can you act more simply like a child today? 

They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children. 
MATTHEW 14:20-21 

Because my family and I spend most summers in Canada, I thought it would be good to learn a little bit about the country. One of the fun tidbits I found is that Canada has the world's northernmost inhabited village. It's called Alert, and it's five hundred miles below the North Pole. 

Imagine throwing a big party or concert in a place like Alert. It would be hard to figure out how to get there, but I'm sure we could all find our way. Then imagine trying to feed all the people who showed up. They might be able to bring enough oatmeal and dried fruit for the first few days, but at some point we'd need to refill. The logistics would make it tough to pull off.

 
This is what Jesus was up against when He and his friends got off a boat in a remote village and found more than five thousand people iri need. It wasn't as remote as Alert, but the transportation challenges were fierce, and when it came time to feed them, the disciples opted to send them away. They couldn't problem-solve this kind of need. They wanted someone else to deal with it. 

But Jesus had a different plan in mind. He told them to fix the problem. You know the story. From a pretty small start, and a kid who just brought to Jesus what he had, God got everyone fed with baskets of food to spare. Sometimes it seems too complicated or inconvenient to give love away or meet people's needs with the little we have. But God's not asking you to figure out all the logistics; He's inviting you to give yourself away. Just bring what you've got. He'll take care of the rest. 

What do you have right now that you can give away? 

Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept. 
GENESIS 33:4 

There's a story in the Bible about two brothers, Jacob and Esau, who had a fall­ing out after the younger one (Jacob) stole his older brother's inheritance. After doing the deed, Jacob ran away to start fresh somewhere else. He got married, had kids, and acquired a bunch of livestock and land. And after a few decades passed, he and his family had to move on to another land. 

But there was a problem. He would have to pass through where Esau and all his people had settled. He would have to face his brother. Jacob did what any of us would: he worried and planned and tried to appease his brother. He sent cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, and camels ahead of him as a gift. He hoped the hundreds of animals might help smooth things out. 

Shortly after, he received word from his servants that Esau was on the way with hundreds of men. Uh-oh. Jacob went back to the sketchbook to come up with a battle plan. This is where the plot twist happened. When Esau finally reached him, he ran to Jacob, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. They held each other and wept. Esau didn't want his brother's stuff He just wanted his brother back. 

This story gives us a taste of God's heart for you and me. God doesn't want to motivate or manipulate us. He wants His love to move us toward Him. Much like Esau, who wanted his brother back more than he wanted his stuff, God wants us to be His. 

How hard is it for you to believe that God wants you? If you really believed it, how would you move toward Him? 

I will rain down bread from heaven for you. 
EXODUS 16:4 

The Bible tells how the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years. I bee you know the narrative already. It's a story about obedience and disobedience, trust and dependence. The part that always stands out to me is the food God sent every morning called manna. Plenty of scholars have argued about whether it was more like saltines or pancakes, but I'm more interested in the shelf life. 

When the manna came, God said to take only as much as was needed for the day. But some would fill their pockets after filling their baskets. A little more won't hurt, just in case. But God made the manna to be eaten, not scored. Any extra would go bad, but the next day, new manna would come again. 

When God expressed His infinite love through Jesus, how many of us take as much as we can? But love isn't meant to be stored up. It's only real love when it's expressed in the lives of others. We can fill our lives with things like attendance at church, prayer breakfasts, and Bible studies. We can fill our lives with clothes, money, and possessions. God's not keeping count because He knows these things can't be stored up either. These things either find a way to express themselves in love or they go bad too. 

Don't slip into a posture of receiving and accumulating. Don't stuff your pockets with things chat will eventually go bad. Instead of scheming to get more and keep it, look at Jesus. Ask Him for enough love and resources to get to the next day. He has plenty more to give. When Jesus gave Himself over to death, that was love too. He invites us to depend on Him one day at a time and to give love away like we know more is coming tomorrow. 

Take a moment to focus on being filled with God's love. What changes for you? 

A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus 
was coming that way. 
LUKE 19:2-4 

I've spent a lot of my life trying to be righteous. But there's a difference between being righteous and being like Jesus. If you only try to be righteous, you miss the big picture. Try to be like Jesus and you get righteousness as a by-product. 

You know the story of Zacchaeus, chat little guy who climbs a tree so he can see Jesus? He was a despised tax collector. He felt like he needed to get above the crowd to get noticed by the Savior-or maybe get out of slingshot range from his neighbors. Thankfully the story of Zacchaeus didn't end with him dangling in a tree, nor does mine or yours. Jesus pushed through the crowd, walked right up to Zacchaeus, and told him He would be his houseguest. The crowd grumbled at this favor shown to a tax collector, and I bet Zacchaeus nearly fell off the top branch. 

Zacchaeus knew he was a cheat and his money was ill-gotten (a behavior he changed, by the way). You might think the point of the story is to be the opposite of the thieving Zacchaeus, but it's not. Instead of trying to stop a few bad behaviors, Jesus is more interested in our transformation-in helping us become more like Him. 

Jesus freed us from the game of trying to earn His attention or favor. We've got it already. We can stop auditioning for a part we already have. When we accept how loved we are, we stop climbing, stop striving and pretending. When we become more like Him, we'll find righteousness comes with the deal. 

In what ways have you been transformed this year? 

The LoRD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory. 
DEUTERONOMY 20:4 

When my daughter was still young, I tried to think of how I could encourage her when things went bad. When something goes wrong in our lives, it's hard to accept words of encouragement in the moment. We're too stuck on beating ourselves up when the disappointment is raw and fresh. Then I had a eureka moment. I decided I would write her letters in advance covering as many bad things that might happen as I could and bury them under a tree in our front yard for her to find later. 

For instance, on one of the notes I wrote, "I forgive you for wrecking my car." It seemed odd writing it when Lindsey was as tall as my kneecaps, but guess what? It happened! So we dug up the note, and she knew I really meant it was okay because I had forgiven her more than a decade before. 

Instead of waiting to pounce when people make mistakes, what if we geo­cached some grace? In a world where everyone is constantly told how they screwed up, what if we were the ones telling people, "Whatever happened, I still love you." 

When people think of Switzerland, they think of peace and banks and yodeling sheep. Whenever countries go to war, they sign the peace treaty there. Switzerland cornered the market on being friends with the whole world. 

When people think of me, I want them to know they can bank on grace. I want to be more like Jesus, who already wrote the letter saying I was forgiven no matter how big the mistake. 

What encouragement from God do you need today? 

Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God. 
JOHN 16:29-30 

When I first started following Jesus, people started trying to teach me things about faith. They said phrases like "Jesus died for your sins so you could be saved." I didn't really know why He had to die or what it meant to be "saved," but I figured it was an extraordinary act of love nonetheless. I've certainly learned a lot over the decades about Jesus and Christianity, but I'm not trying to become a theologian. I'm trying to be more like Jesus and follow the example of His life. 

I find most of the big Christian words thrown around in some faith com­munities distracting, so I don't use them. I try to speak as plainly as I can so I can understand what I mean and so everyone else around me can too. 

I think God understands that we need more than mere book knowledge and insider phrases to understand Him. He gave us the Bible, and then He became a living example of it. He chose to be born and experience toothaches and fatigue, exclusion and oppression, homelessness and poverty. He also experienced joy and laughter and rich friendships. 

Through all His human years, Jesus showed us how to live. He modeled love for us in a way we couldn't grasp just by reading or studying. He didn't come just to talk to people about heaven. He came to heal people in the here and now too. 

Love found His way to us so we could find our way to one another. He said to follow His example of laying His life down for His friends so other people would come to understand what it's like to be held and protected by love. His life tells us everything we need to know about love. Our lives can teach us a bunch about our faith. Learn as much as you want about faith, but don't over­look the joy that comes from living it. 

What can you do today to change your focus from mere words of faith to action? 

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 
MATTHEW 5:46 

When my kids were little, we used to pile into the car around Christmastime to take a tour of the lights around our neighborhood. We poured hot choco­late into thermoses and grabbed our favorite Christmas music. At a top speed of about five miles per hour, we rolled by homes that lit up the sky like the northern lights. 

We always loved the nativity scenes. It's not every day you get to see baby Jesus in a front yard, so we delighted in the season that put Him front and center. After the tour, we always had a family chat about what it meant to show Jesus to people at Christmastime. Sure, He made an appearance in our Christmas pageants and decorations, but we knew decorations didn't start to tell the story. 

We knew the way to show Jesus to people was to love the way He loved. When He went away, He said He was leaving His Spirit with us so we could become like Him and act like Him. It means we can love people who are excluded and alone during the holidays. It means we can love people who don't love us back, the ones who seem to find joy in antagonizing us. 

The way we love difficult people lets everyone know the baby in the man­ger isn't just a decoration. When we look for opportunities to celebrate people who have wronged us, we show people a God who gave His life for those who wouldn't receive Him. 

Who is on your list of those difficult to love this year?