Advent
November 27, 2015

Scripture Reading: 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. –1 Thessalonians 3:11-13

I have this thing about the filters we all have in our brains that shape our perspectives based on our culture, our life experiences, our gender, and many other factors. Sometimes we hold on to filters we no longer need. Sometimes our filters get cluttered with trash. I routinely pray for God to help keep my filters clean because some of those things may be getting in the way of my loving others. I also occasionally need to pray to let dead filters go. I think these are most appropriate prayers and will continue to lift them to God, most likely for the rest of my life.

It struck me recently that such influences are very complicated. I am called to love others whose filters may be full of lent and debris or out of date also. What is my role in interacting with them? How do I love past the barriers that divide us and love into wholeness and oneness? How do we abound in love for one another?

We cannot overflow with love unless we are well connected to the source of love itself: God. For God models through Jesus Christ the ways of love that exceed all bounds and can enable us to live such love when we maintain our own relationship with God.

Prayer: Lord, help me to see past cluttered filters in others and see the potential that lies behind them. Help me to keep the same clutter from my own filters. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.