The Second Greatest Commandment...

...is to LOVE your nieghbour. I have been playing around with the Myers briggs type indicator which is basically a psychoanalytical peronality test, not you regular bebo or MySpace quiz, the Myers Briggs have books etc all based on the theory, and I think it is actually of some use. When approach things such as this I think it is important to remember that a test for personality should not have a binding conclusion on your life BUT it does make for some interesting self assesment and contrasting to those who you are in contact with. I wont tell you all about the theory but you can read about it here What I want to go on to speak about is relationships, and more specifically than that relationships that are important to the Church. Well my immediate conclusion to that is that in some way ALL relationships are important to the church. But when we look at relationships with our fellow laity, towards leader, people in other Quote un quote departments of the church. Relationship is the key to sucess, Im 21 and it didnt take me long to work it out, and that is why Jesus gave it such prominence, and weight when he gave it as the second greatest thing we can do. In fact it seems to me to be a derivative of the first, but obviously Jesus wanted to spell it out plain and clear, and not leave us to ponder in the way of other things he wanted to communicate. The Catholic (all, not just Roman) Church is quite a mosaic these days I think it is fair to say, and unfortunatly we are not quite bound together very well, and not creating the best picture in our mosaic but I addressed that this morning, relationships between churches are based around one day ONE person decided not to be in good/right relationship with another, the church split, the church fragmented, now I know that is a hidious simplistic view of Church history and that the Church has split for it to survive (pos. Reformation) but essentially the point I want to make is that, the building didnt make a decision, the congregation more than often didnt take a vote, it was ONE person. We often go to church, meet people, and decide who we are "like", who is "our type" of Christian, who we find it comfortable to relate to etc etc, but the bible calls us brothers and sisters in Christ, and therein it implies a form of unity, and that unity is based in our love for one another. Anyone, Non-Christians can love someone they like or get on with, but we set ourselves apart from the world when we love someone that our reason tells us is "wierd" "different" " a lesser" "another type", this is when we make the impact on the world, not just by loving our friends but by loving those who should be our enemies. ref. my post on the Amish testimony of Forgiveness. Sometimes we can refuse others world view, or perspective, and isolate ourselves from them, because either we have pride in our own perspective, thinking that we have a monopoly on truth and we know best, it would do us well to remember this is how Adam and Eve first sinned. Secondly we can isolate ourselves from relationships with people who are different because it is uncomfortable for us to be around that person. Some of the greatest things spoken to me have been by people I have attempted to keep away from conversations with for my own comfort. The bible constantly is calling to us to eject ourselves from OUR comfort zones in order to further the kingdom which has its currency in Love. How often do we ponder how well our money, finances or investment would do if we did this or didnt do this, put it here or put it there. It is right to be wise with our money but how much would change if we put this type of value, effort and thought into the currency of the kingdom, a treasure that doesn't turn into dust. Love, loving our neighbour. Martin Stephen, a guy in our church spoke recently about putting on "glasses of Grace" which is a really powerful concept, the thought of seeing someone with Grace then enables us to speak to them with grace, and have grace-filled motives towards them. To be generous in our opinion of someone, to be generous in allowing them to have their perspectives, and being humble enough to hold our opinions in our hands lightly, and not to use them as weapons.