Hello.

You may have heard that God wants to you love Him and not the world. But I sincerely believe that God is infusing people to passionately love the world. It seems daunting at first the sheer magnitude of what God is doing. How to we begin to love billions of people? The truth is we have already begun.

There is no greater joy for me than to love Gemie, care for her, and give her kind words. I feel elated when she smiles during her foot massages. She loves to see me satisfied after one of her awesome meals. God gives us our own experiences of love as glimpses into a life fully lived for the world. This life is a movement toward being like the perfect life that Jesus lived. As I begin to stretch myself to love my family, my friends, and my culture, God is expanding my capacity to love. I see what God has reserved in my heart. He unlocks more as I surrender to the expansion. What results is a large and vast capacity in me to experience love and a more meaningful existence here. Imagine how magnificent a life lived outside yourself can be.

How to start loving everyone:

• Start with the people you know - Jesus explains in Matthew 6 that we should start with out families and friends. Take care of unresolved issues. Treat your parents to dinner. Give a helping hand tutoring your peers. Take your wife on a date. Do the things you do best for the people you know most.
• Walk outside - Get to know your neighbors. Look for ways to lend a hand. Pick up trash. Mow someone's lawn. Start a football game and ask your neighbor to join.
• Give things away - Take your favorite item of clothing, game, food, object, book, painting, song, electronic device, and give it away to a friend or someone who would use it or enjoy it.
• Continue with people you hardly know - Treat the janitor to lunch. Volunteer at a school/church. Buy someone a weeks worth of groceries. Make someone dinner. Do the things you do best for the people you encounter everyday.
• Plant a seed and feed it - Find one thing you can do on a consistent basis. Pick up trash at the beach. Pay for gas. Knit mittens for kids who are cold.

You are probably doing some of these things already. Notice that your goal is not to be the world's next great humanitarian. Treat someone nice and keep going. And remember to humbly give credit to Jesus, the God who makes this love possible.