There is a line from the Aaron Neville song “Don’t Know
Much” that I absolutely love: “I don’t know much, but I know I love you. And
that may be all I need to know.” THIS lyric describes my thoughts on religion
and spirituality. I’m not ignorant of the scripture, and yes I believe we
should “study to show ourselves approved,” as we are instructed in 2 Timothy
2:15. I mean, how else would we know how Jesus wants us to live if we don’t
study The Word? But, I am underwhelmed by extreme theology, by the overwhelming
desire to dig into the original languages of Hebrew and Greek. It’s not that I
don’t think it’s necessary or helpful, it’s just that I am concerned that all
too many “Christians” place so much emphasis on digging into The Word versus
DOING The Word.
I have the awesome privilege of being a part of a ministry
at my home church called The Well. For simplicity, it is an after school
program for children from kindergarten through high school, held every
Wednesday afternoon. One day a week, we get to love on kids, some from broken
families or considered “at risk,” who may never grace the doors of our church
otherwise. Others are the children of
our own volunteers, who attend worship services every Sunday. Regardless, we
love on them. We show them the love of Jesus, help them with homework, share a
lesson from God’s Word, and we feed them.
Our theme this quarter is the Fruit of the Spirit. Our
lesson this past week was on LOVE. One of the simplest versus in the Bible is
found in Matthew 22:37-39 – “You must love the LORD your God with all your
heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest
commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Did you see that? The FIRST and GREATEST commandment: Love God. Love
others. Do you need a PhD to understand
that? I don’t think so. But, I will say, while the command is SIMPLE, it isn’t
always easy.
I will share with you, however, that the kids GOT IT. The
kids at The Well, they GOT IT. I work with the 6th-12th
grade kids at The Well. You know the group, the 14 or 15 year old boy will tell
you, “I don’t know how to read,” when you ask them to read a Bible verse. You
know, the 12-year-old girl who won’t raise her hand, when you know she knows
the answer to a question. This is a tough age group to work with, but I LOVE
THEM. I really, truly LOVE THEM!
Do you know why I love them? I love them because they are
snarky, sarcastic, and I can pick right back at them. But, I love them most,
because when I asked them, “how do you know someone loves you?” “Tell me how
someone has shown you love?” They were able to tell me. One teenage boy told
me, “when my grandpa takes me hunting.” Another shared, “when mom cooks my
favorite meal.” Yet, another shared, “when my uncle lets me drive his
4-wheeler.” I shared, in a way they’d understand, that I knew my husband loved
me because he wanted me to pre-order the iPhone 7 and I didn’t even want a new
phone. He showed love to me because he wanted better for me than I even wanted
for myself.
Isn’t that what love is? Wanting better or more for someone
than they even want for themselves. As the song says, “I don’t know much, but I
know I love you. And that may be all I need to know.” I don’t know much, but I
know God loves me, and that’s really all I need to know. How do I know He loves
me? I know this because He gave His Son, His one and ONLY Son to die for me.
1John 3:16 tells us, “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up His life
for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.”
My week has been a little crazy. My niece – who is more like
a daughter, because we lost her mother nearly 20 years ago – had a near fatal
car crash Monday morning. How do I know I love her? I know this because the
minute I heard she had a car wreck, nothing else on my calendar mattered. All I
knew was that I needed to get to her. I needed to make sure she was okay. And
once I saw her, spoke with her, knew she was conscious, but didn’t know the
extent of her injures; I knew I had to go pick up her kids from school. We HAD
to be together that day as a family. NOTHING else mattered; not my work
appointments, not my exercise routine, not my plans for Monday evening…NOTHING.
LOVE was all that mattered.
If you know nothing about the conquest of Canaan, the 12
tribes of Israel, the 10 Commandments, or the Exodus; or you are overwhelmed
when preachers use words like exegesis or the order of Melchizedek, do not
fear. If scripture tells us the MAIN thing is to love God, and love others,
then we can be faithful followers of Christ. If my students from The Well
understand what love is, then just how much do we need to know in order to love?
Love God. Love others. Go show someone you love some love today! You know how, really you do!
