Are you loving and connecting?

“Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” - Matthew 22:37-39
As we come to accept the Lord as our personal Savior, we are now a part of the group that is called “Christians”. As Christian, we try to do the first part of the passage above which is “Love the Lord your God with all your Heart and with all your Soul and with all your Mind”. What about the second part “Love your Neighbor as yourself?” We all have problem doing that.
Who is your neighbor anyway? Your neighbor is whoever you come across with in your neighborhood, at your church, your job, market place, etc. We all need to do this second part too because Jesus said “it is like the first one.”
My beloved in the Lord, you who call yourself a Christian, do you want to start loving your neighbor today? Don’t look to far. Start from your church. All members of your church are your neighbors. How could you love others outside the church if you could not love the one who worship with you the same God in the same sanctuary every Sunday?
Do you think that there are some people in your church you cannot connect with? You see, when a child feel alone because he is away from home, he comes home because he knows this; “at home, I will be connected with my brothers and sisters. They will love me and make me feel comfortable. I will not feel alone again.” Could you imagine how miserable that child will feel if he cannot feel that connection he was looking among his ones?
Believe it or not, many are those miserable people in our churches today? They are alone in the world and they decided to come to church where they could meet loving people but unfortunately, their loneliness become worst. They come to church every Sunday but nobody connect with them. They sit, listen to the message and go home.
My friend! May be you are the one who sit next to that miserable soul that need connection so desperately but you did not even say “hello”. By doing so, are you loving your neighbor? It isn’t the church a place where people can run to for fellowship? As long as we are failing to provide a fellowship and connection among us in the church, we are sending people back to the world for wrong connection.
Are you coming to church but feel alone? You need to open up yourself for connection with other. Do not just come to church then go home but be willing to shake hand with somebody before you go home. The house of the Lord should be a place of fellowship and perfect connection to one another without exception.
Let fellowship with one another in our churches then we can prove to unbelievers that our God is a loving God. If you could not love your neighbor in your church but you try to show love outside the church, then you are just like someone who refuse to clean inside his house but keeps his yard clean.