This week, a sign hung in a bathroom stall, caught my attention. It was a quote from Psychologist, Noam Shpancer. “Mental health…is not a destination, but a process. It’s about how you drive, not where you’re going.” My mind immediately jumped to Christ as I rearranged the words in my mind. “Christianity is a process. It’s about how you drive, because of where you are going.” Jesus is the reason. As Christians and followers of Jesus Christ, He should be our purpose. Our process should be focused on Him because our destination will be eternity with Him.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.   
             

(1 Corinthians 13:1-7, 13) 

It seems to me that many of us church people, followers of Jesus, get caught up in the “what”. Specifically, for me…what I don’t do. I don’t use drugs. I don’t go to bars. I don’t cheat on my husband. I don’t…. But the true question that we as Christians should be asking ourselves each day is not what we “don’t do” but instead, what “do we do”? We are called to be the hands and feet of Christ. We are not called to be His megaphone. I am not saying that we shouldn’t be spreading His message. But if we cut off a person in traffic, waving and gesturing wildly, and then at the next block turn into a church for service, what message are we really sending? If we know of a family struggling to feed their kids or they can’t afford to buy a Christmas tree or presents, and we tell them that we will pray for them. What use is that? True Christianity should be shown in our actions – and our actions should show what is truly in our hearts.

Christianity is a process. We all know those people who attend church, but their lives are unraveling before our eyes. Belief in Jesus isn’t a magic wand that will turn all your bad habits off and take away all your temptations. Living life is a process; it’s part of the sanctification that we all go through as we learn more and as we are changed from the inside out. We lose more of ourselves, as Christ fills us with Himself. I can tell you that this is very true in my own life.

30 years ago I was the one saying, “My kids will never…” or “That person is beneath me”. I was wrong to feel that way. But I have been so driven in my life not to repeat the mistakes I saw my parents make, that my laser focus was misplaced. I thought that working hard, building a home, giving my kids all the material things that I never had, would be enough to fill the hole I felt in my own heart. But I was wrong.

The Lord is opening my heart more and more every day. He is showing me so much of Himself, changing who I am from the inside.  Now, I can see myself for who I truly am and how much I need Jesus. I do not have the capacity for any of this in myself. It is only through Christ that I am able to do this. Yet again, it is Christ and His love on the cross that paid our ramson. He is the example. He is the process. He is the destination. I pray this will encourage you. I pray that this will challenge you today. I challenge you to open your heart to Christ and let His love fill you so that in turn, you can pour out His love on others.

You can always give without loving, but you can never love without giving.         

Amy Carmichael

I cannot learn to love my neighbor as myself till I learn to love God, and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey Him.

C S Lewis

Love is an essential part of the process of salvation. It is not optional whether you love one another. No one can say, “I am saved by faith regardless of whether I love people or not.” For the only faith which saves is “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). Saving faith always gives rise to love and love gives evidence of genuine faith.

John Piper