Scripture reading
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.
–Mark 12:30-31
Thought of the Day
One of the great joys of my job is the time I get to spend with our seniors each year. We have an active SALT program for our twelfth graders; as we lift them up into leadership to the younger youth. A couple of days ago, I spent the morning with some of our incoming SALT leaders for the year. It was just a time to hang out and begin to prepare for the upcoming year. We started with some prayer time in our chapel here at the church. As we sat in the silence, I told them that this was perhaps the quietest it would be for them this year. Seniors have so many things happening. I encouraged them to let this place be the calm port in the storm for them. After some prayers, we loaded up in the minibus. The quietness of the chapel was a great contrast to the sounds in the bus. Everyone was talking and laughing as good friends do. We stopped for a snack and then we headed downtown. We stopped at a park where homeless people hang out. We had brought an ice chest filled with ice cold bottled water and the youth unloaded with bottles in hand and walked around giving them out. I stayed in the bus because there was no place to park. It was awesome to see them going out in twos and threes and encountering those people in the park. They talked with them. They gave them cold water on a hot day. Some even prayed with them.
For about thirty minutes or so that morning, I know that our youth
fully understood and lived out our scripture for today. I know that they began to see who their neighbor really is. I know that they handed out more that cold water that day. They handed out some love. Why don’t you do the same today?
Prayer
Lord, Help me to always share Your love with others. Amen.