Mitch McDonald, Pastor, Sun Lakes Community Church

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and your neighbor as yourself” Luke 10:27

What is your bottom-line currency? To answer that, we first might want to understand the word itself. According to the dictionary, currency is defined as: noun a system of money or wealth in general used as a medium of exchange in any particular country. No matter what you call it, legal tender, cash, coinage, we all use it in one way or another. I have had the privilege of traveling quite extensively around the world. And those who have also traveled know that inevitably you often return home with currency from the country you have just visited. I keep a small box at my house of paper bills or small coins from many of these countries. The yen used in Japan and Zimbabwe, pesos from Mexico, lira from Turkey, shillings from Kenya, dinar from Iraqi… you get the picture. Now most times, this money has little, if any, monetary value here in the U.S., but we save it. We save it to remind us of the journey. While it may not count here, it counted there. I may forget what souvenirs came from what country, but their currency can’t be mistaken. That’s what counted while I was there.

So, what is God’s currency? What is God’s system of wealth? For me, what will have counted? If we were to distill God’s value system down to its very essence, it would have to be relationships. In fact, Jesus said that all of the wisdom of the Bible, all the “law and words of the prophets,” could be boiled down to two simple commands: Love God and Love People. If we do that, everything else falls into place. Being a child of God is all about relationships. For many that is easily done; they naturally just see beyond the flaws and find it simple to love people. Yet for others, it’s a little tougher to love the unlovable. We are not given the option of just loving the easy to love, but we are to “love others just as He has loved us,” unconditionally, completely, entirely whether they love us back or not. In this broken and fallen world, at whatever season of life we are living in, the community we have chosen to call home begs for this love. It is not only desperately needed; it’s mandatory if we are to walk in relationship with God and others. So, what are we to do? Simply ask yourself, do I love others? If your answer is not enough, try to put into practice what the prophet Hosea wrote: I [God] led them with cords of human kindness, with ropes of love. I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down and I fed them.