Love Changes Everything
“Do you understand what I have done for you?” He asked them…”Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” John 13:12, 14 (NIV)
Love changes everything. Yes, everything.
Let me explain. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Everywhere I look, everything I feel, every moment, every step on this journey through life…love. It touches each space – some hard and some sweet, but no matter the circumstance, its presence and aroma remains.
Love.
Love and grace are looking pretty similar to me these days. They are both free and they are both exquisitely beautiful. And not that it’s all rainbows and sunshine – cause it’s certainly not – but there remains a deep resonance that I am deeply and inexplicably loved beyond measure. No. Matter. What. So, what does a soul do with that?
Worship.
I believe worship is a response to an invitation. An invitation from our Heavenly Father made exquisitely personal to you and to me. Such profound love demands a response. A drumming within my soul that beckons me to respond, to awaken, to come alive…to respond.
To worship Him. But worship doesn’t stop with a single act of praise. No. Worship is a lifestyle that demands a pouring out – a recognition of what has been done on our behalf and an act of gratitude that flows outward in response.
Ann Voskamp sums it up this way,
“Eucharisteo is giving thanks for grace. But in the breaking and giving of bread, in the washing of feet, Jesus makes it clear that eucharisteo is, yes, more: it is giving grace away. Eucharisteo is the hand that opens to receive grace, then, with thanks, breaks the bread; that moves out into the larger circle of life and washes the feet of the world with that grace….Communion, by necessity, always leads us into community.”
One Thousand Gifts Devotional, Ann Voskamp, pages 160-161
Love changes everything.
Love is changing the way I worship, but it is also changing the way I respond to the life He has given me. And if everything I do is out of my heart of worship for Him and what He has done for me, can there be any space left untouched?
As I realize His patience with me, I am more patient with others.
As I study His fortitude for what is good and right and true, I feel my heart anchor deep and reach out to others to share a joy and hope that does not disappoint.
As I witness His mercy unlocking my own chains, I feel my heart soften to the bondage in others.
As I lean in to the way He loved the unlovable, I feel my feet quicken to the outcast.
As I hear His words and His prayers, I feel my heart check my tongue before I speak.
As I absorb His grace upon my life, I feel my smile widen and my hands open wider.
As I open my eyes to the countless ways He washes my feet, my hands are eager to serve and bless others.
His love changed (and is changing) me. I will forever be grateful…and spend my life pouring out that which has been poured into me. To Him be all the glory and honor and praise!
The song I want to share with you today is from a worship band I have only recently discovered. Red Rocks Worship is filling up my playlist these days with their cd, Into the Light. One of my favorites is entitled, “Love Changes Everything.” Such powerful truths, such a poignant call to worship Him as His Love changes everything. Every. Single. Thing.
With joy for the journey,
Sarah
Sarah’s heart and passion is to connect worshipers around the globe, with all their gifts and talents, and come before the Throne of God…together. She is a proud Army Chaplain’s wife and homeschool mom of 3 full-throttle kiddos. She and her beloved husband, Jeff, have been married for 21 years.
