The greatest two commands in the Bible are to love. Firstly God, then others. Yet I'm finding that the busyness of life, the huge number of tasks that need to be accomplished try to crowd in and dampen the love in me. In these times I adopt a task based mentality. It is an inwardly focussed mindset. The goal of my life changes from loving and giving to a survivalist goal of trying to make it through the day. My only thought is getting all the tasks finished for the day. I rush through the day and finish it exhausted, cramming as many activities as possible into every waking second. Multi-tasking, working whilst out with the family just to get as much done as possible. And getting stressed in the process.
Jesus did not live this way. He prioritised love over stuff that needs to be done, and by doing so His life had a massive impact on those He came into contact with.
Application? - people are more important than tasks. Take every available opportunity to give, to bless, to impart God, to love. Prioritise people. And know that one of the subtlest enemies of living a life of love is living a life of tasks. It is often our agendas and lists that prevent us from seeing the real needs.
Even so there will still be essential tasks that need to be done each day.
So, how do we do these tasks without losing a giving, loving attitude.
For me, I need to learn to refuse the voice that demands I rush through as many activities as possible. To slow down and make the purpose of the essential tasks about love. For example, only today I was making the evening meal for everyone but instead of treating it as a chore to be done I reflected on the people that were to be blessed because of it. And thus my heart motive changed from doing a task to one of giving out love. And weird as it sounds I much more enjoyed doing the cooking! It really is more blessed to give than it is to receive as long as our motive is of love and not chore.
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