Week 5 - Day 3

Day 3: “Love, Even When…” – by Dave Thornhill (ACC Member)

Read: 1 John 3: 16-18

Review: Commotion swirls the kitchen scene as though a cyclone struck a carnival; favorable smells and people and food and words, all jumbled together in volume. A dinner party. 

I prefer small, quiet, familiar gatherings. I grouse when told she has gone outside the inner circle and invited neighbors to Thanksgiving dinner. Why summon the chaos? Why solicit the awkward how-do-you-do’s?

But she knows better. Understands deeper. The neighbors have had a rough go and need generous, welcoming friends. They need to be distracted from routine by the thunderous spectacle of our place and our chaos. 

We laugh and feast and uncover shared experiences. Hours evaporate into evening coffee. In this world, let us look to create those moments, for as John wrote “…we know we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters.” Even when we don’t want to. 

Reflect: Who in my life needs my love, not just “in word or speech, but in action and in truth?”