When looked at from the outside the Christian life is full of many oddities. Probably the biggest oddity is that it starts out like a honey moon between you and your Lord. In this phase you can do no wrong in his eyes. You are full of love and even cry at the mentioning of his name. Just about everything you pray for is answered in the positive and God seems like the greatest gift you could have ever received. You start to think that this phase will last forever and that somehow the salvation of the world is on your shoulders.
You witness to everyone you come in contact with and wonder why they don't have the same amount of love you have for Jesus. There are never enough hours in a day for all the work you want to do for God, this might last for days or months and maybe even years. But one day you awaken to the reality of life and just smile at the innocence with which you became a Christian. As you mature you start doing less and less work, leaving the work to the next one who awakens to the love of Jesus.
Many lose the love they once had for the Savior during this phase and become Sunday morning worshipers. But some keep looking for the next level and a more mature form of love. I went through many of these levels and thanks to the help of the Holy Spirit I matured but I never stopped basking in the love of Jesus. I once thought I had to save the world and worked from morning to evening looking for lost sheep. When l got tired I just stopped and rerouted my energy into learning who this Jesus really was and what had happened to him.
So as they say in the church world "he got very cold" and yes I did get very cold towards witnessing and winning souls. But I never stopped searching for more truth until I found a message by Heidi Baker called, Stopping for the One. To me this was it, of course if you couldn't stop for one how could you try and save thousands? This bought it all home. If I could not start with my own wife and son and listening to their pains how could I try and listen to the pains of hundreds. If I could not put up with the small things around my own home like my own brother's vanity and my sister's stubbornness how could I put up with other people's problems?
To stop for the One means just that, work with one person at a time and try and make a difference in their life no matter how bad it may look. It could be a family member or a neighbor who is rotten to the core, just give them the benefit of the doubt and look the other way when confronted with their weaknesses. To stop for the One is to love the One regardless of your comfort zone. Maybe the One cannot love you back, but that is okay because true love does not need a condition if it is true love.
The One could be your dentist or lawyer, a store clerk or the kid down the street. It could be your mother in-law or daughter in-law. It could be an ex-wife or husband or even your worst enemy. Maybe it is someone who hurt you by stealing your business and ruining your reputation, or the clerk at the local MacDonald's. Perhaps it is someone on a different social latter who you would never speak with. They all have one thing in common they need your love just as you need Gods love. The greatest gift is not preaching to tens of thousands but loving the unlovable one at a time.
Love is not being mushy but being nice. A kind thank you for a service done or a smile along with some kind words might help. Maybe asking why that person is so sad and being genuinely concerned for their welfare and happiness. The ideal is to stop looking at yourself and what would make you happy and instead worry about how to make someone else happy that day.
In the case of Heidi Baker she has given up her life to love children that are unlovable and have been abandoned in Mozambique. She loves them to the max one at a time. Happy New Year.

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