Love HOPES All Things

One of my “go to” questions when I talk to officers is, “What made you want to become a cop?” I’ve heard, “I wanted to catch bad guys.” “My family are cops.” “I always wanted to be a cop” and even, “I wanted to help people.” One answer I have yet to hear is, “Because I love people.” I am a pastor, so if I tell people I do what I do because I love people, they might nod their head and think, “Oh, isnt’ that nice.” But if a cop were to say that, I wonder what kind of reaction you would get? Even if you got into law enforcement because you were one who wanted to help people, you probably wouldn’t use the words, “I love people.” That’s not how our culture thinks about love. Instead of action that stems from commitment, our culture makes love a feeling. If you’re anything like me, you probably don’t “feel” love towards people all the time. But love is not just a feeling and sometimes love is what we do in spite of how we feel (if you’ve been happily married for a length of time, you know what I mean).
   
A couple weeks ago, reading the news, I asked myself the question, What would make you, as an officer, want to continue serving in the face of such misplaced, deliberate, manipulated and targeted hatred from our media-driven culture today? and this definition of love from the Apostle Paul came to my mind. Your actions are driven by a commitment, and that kind of self-sacrifice in the face of apathy, rejection or outright hatred is the very definition of love.
   
The Apostle Paul said love bears all things, believes all things, HOPES all things and endures all things. “Hopes all things” is similar to “believes all things”. Believing all things means believing the best for a person even though they may not deserve it at the moment (it gives them another chance).  Hoping all things means waiting with confidence to see someone live up to their potential (which often means seeing something in someone they do not see in themselves at that point).
   
My prayer for you this week is that you will find one person for whom you can “hope all things” and it will encourage them to live up to their potential. 

Your service is appreciated,
​Pastor Rob

Love Series - Week 1   Week 2   Week 3   Week 4