Devotional Thought of the Day:

 ³⁴  I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you. ³⁵  It is by your love for one another, that everyone will recognise you as my disciples.John 13:34-35 (NJB)

I spent five days this week with other servants of God at a deacons conference and then at a pastor’s conference.

Saw a lot of old friends, many of who showed interest in how I was doing with my father’s death two weeks ago.

I came home to folks in crisis… not my family but those in my church family. It’s been a hard morning – a very hard morning.

But for 5 friends – my wife,  a young pastor, a vicar, a deacon, and a friend who gave to me the most precious gift you can give a pastor.  A friend who let me be her pastor… who let me speak to her of God’s grace.  That takes a sense of God’s love and trust that is incredible and is a blessing.

You see, loving each other isn’t just about the kind words and deeds whcih we usually count as showing love.  It is equally loving, even more loving, to let someoen in close enough to see your hurts, your pains, your embarassment and ask – is God still with me?  Not that we don’t know this in our heads, but our hearts so deperately need to hear this as well. It takes great amounts of love to let people in, to let them care about you, to let a pastor, pastor you.

And to do so, letting me in, trusting God to work thorugh me… is one of the greatest ways to show love.

So in these days… I am thanking God for many… but especially for the friends who not only call me pastor… but let me…

a very precious gift you give me…

God Bless….

D†