My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command. (John 15:12-14 NIV)
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 NIV)
I've always thought it strange that this particular Friday is dubbed as "Good Friday." I never really experienced anything "good" on this day throughout the years. Everyone seems a little more down. The weather often times seemed to be rainy and gloomy (at least in the places I've lived). The things we attended as a family were always depressing...reminding us of the death of Jesus. How can focusing on death be good?
After coming through a season of my life where I have been reminded regularly of death, I'm seeing things a little differently now. Remembering my mortality is not a bad thing. On the contrary, I'm finding that it keeps everything else in perspective.
I don't have long to live. No, I'm not saying I have some disease that is going to take my life in the next couple of days. I'm saying that in the overall picture of things all of our lives are relatively short when compared to eternity. Birth, childhood, schooling, career, marriage, and raising three children is already a blur as I look at my children entering adulthood. I expect that the next 1/2 of my life will fly by just as fast or even faster than the first half.
Considering the fact that I'm a short-timer makes me think about how I'm spending the time I have here. I start thinking about priorities - not for the future, but for today. What is the best way to spend this day...this hour...this moment. As I think about these "bigger" questions, I find myself being motivated to do what Jesus did.
He laid down his life for his friends. He made everyone in the whole world more important than himself. He decided that our life was more important than his life. Since he could trade his life for ours, he took the trade. He decided that he had nothing to live for except to bring us to The Father...and that was accomplished through his death.
It's time for me to lay down my life for my friends. It's time to define "friends" the same way Jesus did...loving my "brothers and sisters," my "friends," and even my "enemies." Everyone I meet is my friend and, following in his steps, I must lay down my life for them as well.
I cannot bring them to The Father by dying for them. Only Jesus could do that. But I can bring them to The Father by introducing them to His Son. That's exactly what I am here to do. I have nothing to live for except to bring people to Him. Then we can all have life together...forever.
Thank you for reminding me, my brother, my friend.
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