Pastor’s Place: Love triumphs over storm

By Justin Paulk, Campus Pastor, Fellowship of the Parks Justin

I’m a person who really doesn’t enjoy being cold. So when the temperature drops, I’m that guy that layers up. I’ll put on thermal underwear, pants under pants, a sweatshirt under a jacket with another jacket on top… all to avoid being cold when I walk out the door.

So this recent bout with winter had me bundled up like never before. Call it Snovid or Snowmagedden or whatever you want. This last round of winter weather was like none many of us have experienced in North Texas.

We all dealt with power outages or maybe frozen pipes. We watched our home thermostats at times get way too close to the outside temperature. Pipes burst. Store shelves rapidly emptied leaving my wife with no creamer for her coffee! It got a little nuts.

It’s in those moments that typically we all go into survival mode. Our response in these situations typically is to think about ourselves. But what I witnessed during this cold spell was quite the opposite!

In fact I loved it, and here’s why. Jesus tells us in Matthew 22: 37-40 that we are to do two things. He says to love God and love your neighbor. That’s what I love about Jesus…He makes it so simple! Love God and love others!

During this crazy snowy mess that’s exactly what I saw our wonderful communities do. They lived that out! I saw neighbors loving neighbors. People invited strangers who had no heat to come stay with them. People who had power invited those that didn’t into their homes. Water was delivered to those that had none! Meals were delivered to those who were hungry. We all took care of each other. And it was beautiful! We loved each other and it was so refreshing.

Now the snow has melted and Texas has done her thing. Temperatures that were hovering around zero have risen back to normal. The sun is out. But my challenge to all of you is to love each other like we did when it was freezing. Can you imagine how great that would be? Let’s love each other like that all the time.

The Pastor’s Place features columns written by a different area church leader each month. Call 940-728-8284 for more information.