Coke or Pepsi??

Does anyone  reading this have someone in your home who cannot seem to pour a glass of coke without it "fizzing" out over the top of the glass and getting on everything that happens to be on the countertop?  Well, I certainly don't either.  But, let's just say that hypothetically I did.  Let's say he is, oh, 13 years old, and his name, hypothetically of course, is uuummmm, a random name like Rhett.  He knows that if it is not flat, it is going to fizz or spew, or whatever you like to call it, and unless he stops pouring before he gets to the top of the glass, it is going to overflow and get everything sticky and turn nearby papers brown and get in the little grooves on the edge of the countertop and be almost impossible to get clean.  Again, this is all hypothetical. 
I mentioned in one of my previous entries that I know that I am not the typical preacher's wife material and my kids aren't perfect (but they certainly wouldn't let a coke spill onto everything in the kitchen) , but I am going to do my best to love Jesus and love people. And here's the deal:  I have found that if I will love Jesus with all of my heart and all of my mind and all of my soul, my love for others will just come automatically.   I think that's what Jesus meant when he answered the Pharisee's question about which commandment is most important.  He said, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.'  This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important:'Love your neighbor as yourself."  If you think about it, if we follow the first commandent, the others will take care of themselves.  If we love the Lord with our everything, we won't kill, steal, commit adultery, or any of the other things we are commanded not to do.  We will love others.  And we will follow these commandments, not because we are supposed to, but it will just come naturally because we are so full of Him.  He is love (1 John 4:8).  When we are full of Him, we are full of love!  And here's the even cooler thing (as if there could be something even cooler than that)- when we are so full of Him that we begin to overflow, everything around us gets saturated!  That's right, it flows onto others, like it or not, because it is just "fizzing" out!!  And just like that paper on the countertop that gets drenched  by coke is ruined, when someone is saturated by Jesus, he or she is radically changed.  That's what He's about - changing things- for the better!   It makes me think of Isaiah, when he said, "Woe to me, for I am ruined.  I am a sinful man,yet I have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!" (Isaiah 65)  When he saw himself, a sinful man, next to a Holy God, he saw himself as ruined.  When we see ourselves for who we really are and God for who He really is, we realize our need for His Saving Grace, and He changes us.  He becomes our righteousness (1Cor 5:21)!!  Isn't that exciting???? We can be so full of love for Christ that it overflows to others and they are ruined- for the better!
The other night on the way to church, Luke, my 4 year old, said to me, "I love God, but I don't love you".  I said, well if you love God then you love me, because God is love and He tells us to love others.  I could see the wheels turning.  He answered, "Well, I love you and I love God, but I don't love the Holy Spirik" (not a typo- he says spirik!).  I laughed until I cried.  The reality of it is, if we can't love others, we need to reevaluate ourselves and our relationship with God.  We love because He first loved us, and loving others is not a suggestion- it's a commandment. 
As you are praying for me in my new role as a pastor's wife, I do not ask you to pray that I will wear the right thing or say the right thing or avoid saying the wrong thing.  Instead, I ask you to pray that I will love the Lord with all of my heart and all of my mind and all of my soul, and that His love would overflow from me and touch those with whom I come in contact.  His love is never flat- it always fizzes- and I pray that He will fill me with a love that I can't get over!  I don't need coke or pepsi, I need more of Jesus!!!
Until next time,
The FlipFlop Pastor's Wife