Good Monday morning (11-08-11),

I’ve just returned from an awesome conference where we met and studied with apostles and missionaries and prophets from around the world. God invaded our space and worked miracles in people’s bodies and in our hearts.

Prior to this conference I had been praying one of my many needy prayers: to have the heart of Christ so that I can see people through His eyes and love them with His love.

Ever noticed how we pray for things when we have absolutely no idea what we are talking about?

Heidi Baker taught out of Luke 10:27, that passage where the lawyer tested Jesus. He asked the Lord, “What should I do to inherit eternal life.” Jesus answered, “Love God with all your heart and soul and strength and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.”

In her teaching, Heidi asked two fundamental questions that gave me the answer I’ve been seeking.

First question: Who is your neighbor?

Second question: What does love look like?

I’ve been meditating on that for days. Who is my neighbor? There are lots of correct answers but only one that is always true. My neighbor could be the guy who lives next door, my sister in Christ, a family member, someone God has personally told me to reach out to for some type of ministry. All those people are my neighbors.

But Heidi said it so simply and the sound of truth rang like a bell in my heart. My neighbor is whichever one is in front of me right now. No other pre-requisites. All my “what-ifs” silenced.

If I want to have the heart of Christ then I must be constantly on the alert. I must be ready in season or out of season…in other words, at any given moment I must be prepared to reach out to the one who is in front of me right now.

My neighbor, who I am to love as I love myself, is the one I’m looking at, the one in front of me. Furthermore, since God has proven that He will do things in some way other than the one I expect, the person in front of me could be the one sitting beside the road I don’t want to look at: the one bruised and broken, the unwashed one, the not very nice one, the one who doesn’t like me.

Jesus didn’t put any exceptions in His answer. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Who is my neighbor? Whoever is in front of me now!

Simple as it is, it is a radical statement — radical because there are so many people I choose to pass by every day without looking because they don’t seem to be relevant to my life. But I’ve asked God to expand my heart, to break it and then remake it into the image of the heart of Christ. I’ve asked Him to teach me to love like He loves. I’m discovering this might not be as simple or as comfortable as I’d like.

Radical love is never easy.

Second question: What does love look like?

Heidi gave us some of her answers, answers from the other side of the world in a place that would not be familiar to our western eyes. Love looks like a well dug or a school built. Love looks like a meal when you haven’t eaten anything in days and days.

I’m learning that love looks like a lot of things that don’t cost anything, but might require everything. Love looks like a hug given straight out of the heart. Loves looks like a word of encouragement at just the right moment. Love looks like someone stopping in the midst of their busy day, their crammed tight schedule, and spending time with someone who is lonely and in need. Love looks like a smile even in the face of insult. Love looks like acceptance when everything on the outside appears to be unacceptable.

Radical love, Jesus’ kind of love, holds up against fear, ridicule, rejection, judgment, condemnation. It doesn’t buckle in the face of adversity. It shines like a beacon of warmth in the cold darkness of this world. It does things that are unexpected. It gives without restraint, without hope of reward, without conditions, without expectations.

Radical love just gives. Radical love just is.

Jesus, teach me to radically love my neighbor; to be unconcerned about the outcome; just yielded to You so that You can mold me and make me into something I have never been but desperately yearn to become.

“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” Mat. 5:45-47

"But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,” Luke 6:26-28

“But love your enemies and be kind and do good [doing favors so that someone derives benefit from them] and lend, expecting and hoping for nothing in return but considering nothing as lost and despairing of no one; and then your recompense (your reward) will be great (rich, strong, intense, and abundant), and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind and charitable and good to the ungrateful and the selfish and wicked.” Luke 6:34-36, Amplified

Laurie Gross