Love on an Island

"The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost." G. K. Chesterton

“Island living requires the cultivation of an alphabet of virtues”, writes Len Sweet, including “affirmation, blessing, compassion, discipline, empathy, forbearance, grace, humility, identification, and so on. On an island you can’t pick your fights or hold your feuds. You learn to exercise and eat with the people you don’t like. No matter how unpleasant the people, you can’t escape them. Any ‘enemies’ would be the parents of your children’s best friends. Serious divisions could destroy the town.”

Is not the church very similar? Phillip Yancey once said that he always wanted to be a part of a small church because you couldn’t pick your friends in a small church. Yancey felt that ‘living on an island’, (a small church), helped him learn to be more like Jesus. Forced him to learn might be a better term!

If we don’t let those in our community help us become more like Jesus we’ll end up living in a giant game of “Survivor”, voting others off the island or fleeing from it ourselves when it gets uncomfortable.

"Words are plentiful; deeds are precious. " Lech Walesa

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own. " Benjamin Disraeli

1 John 5:4
For every child of God defeats this evil world by trusting Christ to give the victory.