Schools of Love

I find myself giving encouragement to lots of young ministers these days. (I’m filled with several emotions) However I am reminded of Paul’s words to Timothy: “Let no one look down on you because you are so young, but be a model of believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faithfulness, in purity” (1 Tim. 4:12). That is a daunting charge to any one of any age. Yet, Paul obviously expected ordinary saints to “imitate” him as he “imitated Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1; 4:16).Jesus said it another way, He told His disciples to love as He had loved (John 15:12). “No greater love, than to lay done his or her life for friends,” He explains in (John 15:13).There is no real tidy, neat method for tranforming leaders or churches into the people that we are called to be, however, the idea that we attend “schools of love” continues to resound through my soul.Martin Buber once wrote, “The greatest thing one can do for another is to confirm what is deepest in another.”The more I find myself speaking to younger individuals, the more I find myself staring into their own hearts to see what it is that is hidden deeply with in them. And you know what? Each of them are seeking to understand how to receive and to give “love.”Love has been so misused and abused by our culture that it truly needs to be not only redefined but re-embodied! Love that takes shape and form in our daily lives in such a way that the reality of it can not be denied.Love lays down its life... for friends! So “... be a model of love to the world around you.” Age doesn’t matter. I’ve seen young and old do it well.The church has spent thousands of years training and educating its people, maybe it simply needs to be a “school of love.”