Strategic Love

My wife and I were having dinner with a couple earlier this week, and we had a great time sharing a meal and catching up with each other.  It was a really enjoyable time, but because it was a work night, we had to pull ourselves away so we could get to bed on time.  As our friend was walking us out, he began to give me a little bit of a hard time about not hanging out as much as last year.  It was mostly joking around, but I still defended myself with all the different events that I have hosted or attended over the past several months.  However, he persisted that we used to hang out as a big group of friends every week last year, and my participation in these events has dwindled.  I refused to give up, explaining that I have done many things and even pointed out the events that he didn't attend.  While we left on good terms, I definitely thought about what he said. 

Loving one another.  This was the last theme of The Lighthouse Church and it is one of the distinguishing factors for Christians, because Jesus said that people will know that we are His disciples because we love one another.  The sermon series went through how we love unselfishly and without expecting anything in return.  We even went through the classic Good Samaritan parable.


While the sermon series was a good reminder of how we are to love generally, and I really enjoyed the encouragement and exhortation, I think that even more could be said on the subject of loving one another.  One of the ideas running through my mind is that we cannot love everyone.  If loving someone takes time and energy, then I am limited in the number of people I can love and in the amount of love I show someone.

Perhaps my friend is right, I haven't been loving the same people the same way as last year.  I think the reason is that there have been new people added to the church this school year, and I have been investing time in them.  That necessarily takes away time from loving other people.  Each moment I spent with one person is a moment I won't be spending with another.

Therefore, it stands to reason that we need to be strategic in who we love and spend time with.  We cannot love all people or at least love all people the same way.  So, how do we prioritize our loving one another?  That is a great question, and I don't have the perfect answer.

Of course, we need to love God first and our family second.  Beyond that, I guess it depends on a lot of things.  I make it my goal to try to spend time with the people in my small group and invest in them.  Additionally, I try to make a point to love and invest in people who are new to Kuwait in the church.  Finally, I try to love people who are partners with me in serving or who can give me wisdom and advice.

What do you think?  What is your strategy to love people?  I think if we don't have a plan of loving people, we will just gravitate towards what is natural, easy, and selfish.