What does love look like today?
That’s a prayer I often pray.
Looking over my calendar, today love will look like this:
- The staff gathering for a meeting, supporting each other, sharing what we are doing in our separate areas of responsibility.
- Meeting with our bible study group, #JustRead, this afternoon. Love will look like 16 or more faces on a zoom screen smiling at one another. It will look like friendship. They don’t know it yet, but we are going to be reading some tough scripture and then love may look like sticking with something even when we don’t like what it says. (PS: I love bible study—sort of a nerd that way. If you would like an intro to the bible or an hour taste of the bible, let me know!)
- And then meeting with our worship committee. Worship is an expression of love. Worship, right now, looks like sacrifice. We would rather be meeting in person, but we are sacrificing what we want to keep people safe. Love looks like doing what we can.
- And then at the end of the day, love will look like going home, my old dog Ike asleep at my feet, Dave and I sharing dinner.
Later this week I will meet with a couple who will be married in a few weeks. Love looks young and fresh and excited. (Taylor and Dan are getting married. Pray for the joy of this.) And then later I will meet with a family to prepare for a funeral. Then love will look like loss and grief and memories. Pray for this expression of love too.
Pretty easy to see love in all these places.
That is not always the case.
Last week at the Capitol, when windows were broken and congress ran for cover and five people were killed, what did love look like? What does love look like now as debate follows on what to do about all this?
I know what love is not:
It is not violent.
It does not destroy others.
It is not fueled by blame or anger.
It is not self-serving.
Love seeks the welfare of others.
Love is not a pushover, is not meek, stands up when it is time to stand up.
Love is incredibly honest. It is fueled by the truth, demands justice, and compassion.
Love believes in our best character and it ruthlessly pursues us until our best character is revealed. It refuses to settle for anything less. If something is bothering you know, look again and see if it is love trying to find its way in,
Love seeks us individually and then tosses us together in a heap in imperfect families and communities and seems to say "there, have an adventure together seeking love." Love doesn’t mind a mess, maybe even does its best work in a mess.
Love is our foundation. Everything else is pretty slippery.
And God is love.
The biggest lesson of my life in the time I have served here at WDMUMC: love arrives in a variety of forms. And just when I think that I may have found its limits, it pushes further, arrives in yet another form. Love is a path forward.
I have no advice for Congress. I am working on my own heart. I do know for both Congress and me, our work must begin with love.
What’s love look like today in your world?
Blessings,
Pastor Cindy
Pastor Cindy Hickman
West Des Moines United Methodist
Church
720 Grand Avenue
West Des Moines, Iowa 50265
515-279-0826
Like us on Facebook or visit us at wdmumc.org. We worship on Sunday mornings at 9:30 on our Facebook page and all week long when our worship service is posted.
This Week at WDMUMC:
Monday Morning Bell Ringing Each Monday morning we ring our bell and remember those who have died in Iowa in the past week due to Covid. This week we rang the bell 192 times. May those who mourn be sheltered in our prayers. We also pray for our health care workers and those working to distribute the vaccine.
Everybody Eats! The West Des Moines Schools are working to provide food to students who live with food insecurity. They provide snacks for children that include a drink box and some sort of grain—like pretzels or fish crackers. These need to be packaged together. Janet Hayes and the MidWeek Refuel teams and other volunteers are packing these snacks. They follow Covid protocols, wearing masks, and limiting the number of people who can package to two people in a room at a time. Even during a pandemic, the work of feeding people goes on.
Worship This Sunday “Here I Am” This Sunday we will be reading 1 Samuel 3:1-20. God calls and Samuel says “here I am.” Where are you? Does it make a difference? See you Sunday!
Something you can do! Bidwell Riverside, a mission on the southside, needs reusable bags. They make them out of old t-shirts. No sewing involved. You can find instructions here. https://www.bidwellriverside.org/no-sew-tshirt-bags. I have lots of old t-shirts if you would like to do this. I bet others have old t-shirts too.
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