Over the past two weeks that we were at Samaritan’s Purse in Foley, Alabama, it’s safe to say that my squad learned and grew a whole lot throughout the time being. I was given several opportunities while being there that allowed me to introduce the Gospel, which sometimes is a difficult thing to navigate. The concept of the simplicity of the Gospel was first legitimately brought to my attention when we were at one of the homeowner’s houses and my squadmate Elina and I were raking the yard when the next-door neighbor, Mike, started talking to us. Being who we are, obviously, we engaged in conversation and created small talk with him. What turned out to be roughly a 45-minute conversation from across the fence ranged from asking him about his family and his past to indulging in the concept of the simplicity of the Gospel.
The Gospel is simply this. To love Jesus and to love your neighbors. That’s literally it. We spend our lives as “Christians” filling it up with so much fluff that we end up forgetting what it’s all about. We put so much emphasis on the things we can and can’t do, that we end up idolizing those things. We end up becoming the ones who judge and condemn. We end up forgetting that all we were created to do was love Jesus and love our neighbors. It’s not of the Lord to idolize anything else. It’s not our place to judge and condemn those around us. We have one job. ONE. To love Jesus and love our neighbors. How nice is it to know that we don’t have to put as much of an emphasis on everything else? How incredible is it to know that we just have to follow those two steps and we’re set? The reality of it is that if we live our lives following those two steps, everything else will fall into place. You won’t have to worry about keeping track of all the things you think you can and can’t to because if you’re loving Jesus and loving your neighbor, everything else will just flow.
Wow I have so many more stories I want to share about how the last two weeks have been, but I think I just want to keep it simple for this one (haha get it?) I promise I’ll do everything in my being to attempt to get those stories out to y’all as soon as I can. Thanks for reading!
