I think of the human heart as a room. That room needs to be cleaned out just like a closet or house does. It gets dusty and dirty from all the sadness, the pain, the hurt, the feelings and emotions, the failures, the ugly thoughts, and the disappointments of life all around us every moment. So each week or month or couple months or year, whatever, that room needs a good clean out, an airing out, a focus on what really matters. This usually involves slowing down and just focusing on God, not things we want to do.

A very good focus is not eating, just drinking, or not eating certain things, or not watching movies or no FB or whatever for a day, even 12 hours, and focusing on God. It is a shift, a seeking not filling, a hunger, and it can really help you reset and focus on Him. “Be completely humble and gentle…” fasting is a humbling of ourselves and acknowledging that we don’t’ have the answers and we can’t just power through it till we figure it out. But we step back and say God, can you help me? “…be patient, bearing with one other in love…” Loving people is not easy. It is tears, it is blood, it is giving one’s lift force for others, it is painful, unnatural, hard, hard work, but it is love.

God is Love. God gave His life for us. We are called to love one another. We are called to give up our life for others. John 15: 13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Does this mean the heroic throwing one’s body over a grenade to save others?

At times yes, most times no… it means cooking, cleaning, packing lunches, laundry, cleaning bathrooms, toilets, and sinks, giving meds, cleaning those who are unable to make it to the bathroom on time, talking on a phone, driving an emergency vehicle, phoning a police officer at three am, the list goes on and on. It means just being you, doing your ordinary job, day after day, but obeying God and honoring Him as you do it.

That is walking worthy. It is living the ordinary, everyday, while we serve an extraordinary God who loves us more than any of us can even fathom.