It’s honesty time.

I don’t really love people like I should.

I say I do… and I want to… but when I get down to it, I think that I don’t do a good job of it.

I wish when I did it (that is, love people) my motives were pure.  But too often they’re not… I’m nice to them because they’re nice to me back… which is really just another way of saying that I’m nice to them because I want something.

That’s what must have been so great about being around Jesus.  He was really agenda-less when it came to loving people.  I wonder what his answer to this question would be:

 “Jesus, why do you love _____”

It’d probably be something simple, like “because my father made them.”  

That has to be why people were so drawn to him.  For many of them, they were experiencing pure, agenda-less love for the very first time.  

So why bring this up now?

Because sometimes, to be honest again, I want to invite people to church for the wrong reason.

I want to invite them because it makes me feel better about myself.

I want to invite them because I want CG to be a big, impressive church.

My motives aren’t pure.

When I pray, sometimes I ask that God would create in me the same love for people that he has.

I ask that God would change my heart so that I’m as emotionally impacted by those around me as I am by a big-screen TV or new mountain bike.

I think it’d be easier to invite people if my heart was that way.

I think they’d be more likely to come too…