https://youtu.be/_7xMfIp-irg

All you need is love.

What if this were true?

Ok…maybe all is a stretch. Maybe “love is really, really important and something we should make a priority”.

It certainly feels like life is better with more love.

It seems like a lot of problems can be helped by more love.

I feel like my life is better in proportion to how much love I pour out and receive on any given day.

What if it was up to us? What if it was our choice as to whether or not the world became a more loving place? What if it all starts with how we treat our neighbors today? What if love is all we need?

Make it a great day.

Jake

All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action. – James Russell Lowell

One of my favorite ideas from Andy Stanley (although I’m sure he isn’t the only one to say it) is that love is a verb.

Love requires action.

Sentiments and nice words won’t do it.

We are all born with a desire to love and be loved, but we don’t get either without taking action.

In the Bible it commands us to “love our neighbors”.

Sounds nice, right?

What if instead it said “consistently act in a loving way towards your neighbor”?

Andy Stanley says that “love is a verb”, it requires doing; and then prompts us to ask the question “what does love require of me?”

What loving action could I take today?

Towards my spouse.

Towards my neighbor.

Towards my coworker.

Towards the strangers at Wal-Mart (or Target or wherever you shop…).

Find a way to take action today. Act out of love.

Make it a great day.

Jake

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. – Saint Augustine

The Bible tells that God has counted the hairs on our heads and has knitted us together in our mother’s womb.

God loves you as if you were the only one.

He was overjoyed with you when you got that A+ on that second grade spelling test.

His heart broke with yours when that friend you thought you could trust did that thing that hurt so bad.

He watched in disappointment when you cheated on that Algebra test in 9th grade.

His eyes filled with tears that time you turned your back on him in college because it wasn’t the “cool” thing to do.

His heart leapt with joy when your first baby was born and you became a mother.

He was there when the doctor gave you the news that changed things forever.

He fills your heart with conviction when you break that promise that “you’d never” for the 10th time in the last year.

He sat with you when you couldn’t believe that you would never see them again.

He is full of hope and pulls closer when you can’t see a way out.

He LOVES YOU with everything He has – every day, all day.

It’s not always fun. It’s heartbreaking one minute and full of joy the next, but he never stops. There is nothing you can do to get Him to stop – nothing.

He wants all of you, all of the time – for you. For your joy, your benefit and your eternal salvation.

How lucky are you? Let love pull you closer to your Creator. To the one who loves you no matter what.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt – The Man in the Arena

This quote at the top from CS Lewis is a great reminder of the virtue and vulnerability inherent in loving something outside yourself.

The man in the arena quote is a reminder that it is worth it.

Love requires risk.

We must risk rejection, heartache and betrayal in order to truly love another.

We must push through difficulties. Our faces will be marred with dust and sweat and blood.

It will be worth every excruciating moment, as they will be (most likely, no guarantees) repaid with purpose and meaning beyond which we cannot fathom on our own.

It will be the growth catalyst that propels us into becoming the best version of ourselves.

It will be the anvil upon which we will be sharpened and formed into something amazing.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven. – Henry Ward Beecher

I think of this in CS Lewis’s terms as he describes charity as one of the four loves. Charity in his description is love of our fellow mankind.

Every loving act is a stepping stone toward heaven.

We build our way to a better future through loving actions toward those around us.

One smile, kind gesture or kind word at a time leads towards something better for all of us.

What could you do today to act out this in your own life?

What words might you choose?

What actions might you take?

What might you do differently to create an environment where love could rule in your life?

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/tmSzRx9RYLk

A baby is born with a need to be loved – and never outgrows it. – Frank A. Clark

Love – the subject of the season.

This quote above is one of my favorites. I think about this quote all the time.

We were designed to love and be loved just like we were designed to breathe in oxygen.

I think of this quote in two distinct ways.

First – that everyone I interact wants to be loved. From the waiter to my coworkers to my kids to my wife. Anything I can do to show them that they are loved is time well spent.

Second – that most of my own blindness to my own idiosyncrasies is due to my own desire to be loved. I need to work on myself to become more loving and lovable.

Make it a great day.

Jake

I’ve had the good fortune to get to watch Maggie and her team play a lot of basketball over the last couple of months.

It’s made even more appreciative of the teams we have at Mavidea and Maxlider.

We haven’t won every game over the last 15+ years, but we sure have won our fair share.

We’ve made a lot of memories.

We’ve picked each other up when we are down.

We’ve had each other’s backs when it counted.

We’ve had fun.

We’ve treated our duties seriously when required.

And there’s more to come. Some days it feels like we are still just getting started.

Be thankful for the teams you are on today. Send a teammate a note of gratitude. Give somebody a pat on the back.

Life is a team sport – let’s make the most of it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

I am still learning. – Michelangelo

As I get older and more mature I’m more and more convinced of the positive benefits of a growth mindset.

I have so much to learn and each day fall short of perfection.

I can understand that and be defeated – or emboldened.

I can find encouragement in the fact that I have lots to learn – and that I’m capable of learning and growing.

That I’m not fixed and immovable – I am flexible and malleable.

The same goes for you. Today doesn’t have to be the same. You can change.

And you’re worth it. You’re worth the hard work and difficulty.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn’t. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down.”

― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

What a powerful thought.

Regardless of where you stand on believing in God and whether or not God places trials in our lives to test us, life will test you at some point.

The older I get the more I wonder how many of my "temples" are really houses of cards.

We see others whose metaphorical card houses have been toppled and quickly jump to conclusions about what they may have done wrong, not noticing we are balancing precariously in a card house ourselves.

But where’s the positive spin, Jake?

First, showing empathy for the weaknesses and follies of others can help us from meeting that same fate.

Second, seeing our house of cards for what it is before it falls can save us a whole lot of heartache.

Take a look at what you are building your beliefs and habits from to make sure they are built on solid footing.

Make it a great day.

Jake ​

What we really are matters more than what other people think of us. – Jawaharlal Nehru

Reminder for a Monday morning.

Doing our best to be our best matters more than what others may think.

Make it a great day.

Jake