“Jesus replied, “‘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.’”  Matthew 22:37-39 NLT 

One of our primary challenges in life is that we look for everything but relationships to address the core issues of life.  Law, structure, rules, knowledge, pleasure, success, and self-determination are a good starter list of how we distract ourselves from great relationships. 

Jesus points us back to the essentials: 

Our relationship with God is worth our complete focus and effort.  God is inviting us, and Jesus is reminding us of this as the highest focus and priority in our lives.  

Our relationship with each other is the second highest focus and priority in our lives.   

While things like law, structure, and knowledge all have limited value, when they are elevated above these two great invitations with God and each other, we lose our way and prioritize the wrong things. 

Receiving God’s invitation to a meaningful relationship through Jesus Christ is life-changing in every way. We experience unconditional love and forgiveness.  We are never alone.  The Holy Spirit is engaged in our lives at every level. Life never looks the same once you are experiencing an active relationship with God.  

Responding to God’s invitation to love other people well brings out the very best in who we are.  This, in turn, draws out the very best in those who are being loved well.  It is worth the effort to love unconditionally and forgive generously.  

Ed McDowell 

C.E.O. 

Warm Beach Camp Ministries