Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
1 10 2025
| If we could know the last time we could say I Love You! Some of you may know that my mom is in her final hours at Hospice at 99 years, 5 months, and 5 days…and counting. They say your sense of hearing is the last thing we lose, even though she is sleeping all the time. Saying I Love You should be said every day to everyone we live with and, very often, for those who are close. I think too often, our crazy weeks, lives, jobs, and kids steal the joy and “the honor” of those wonderful three words! There is no good excuse that should keep us from showing the love we have to those we love. I know that many of you no longer have your Moms or Dads or grandparents with you, but the message here goes far beyond,… it should be a way of life and living and loving. If you could only know the last time you could say I Love You to those special someone’s…what a difference it would make. We would MAKE time. Take TIME off and let others step up. I was watching a movie about a divorced Dad of four kids who ran away to a tropical island to die. He had cancer and didn’t want to suffer under chemo and wanted to enjoy the beauty of God’s nature in the purest way he could. His adult daughters came hunting for him, and one discovered his cancer report, he asked her to promise not to tell her sisters so he could enjoy those next few days without the cloud. For that one child, that news changed every perspective she had about life. She left a 4-month-old daughter at home with her husband, but life became instantaneously more precious and vital at that moment. The lens and filter of her life took on a nature and life that can only come when someone you love is in their final days. Love poured out of her like an underground spring. She held the secret a short time, but you could tell it in her eyes… her glances…her affections… her appreciation for what she was about to lose. Why do we allow the world’s system to steal one of the truest meanings and happiness and joys of living? Would you give a thousand dollars or….$ To have a last conversation with that person when they could coherently still understand? A final hug. A final tear together? To say thank you for all the love. What do you own that is more treasured than appreciation and love poured out…not just to anyone… but to THEM? 1 Peter 4:8 “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 Corinthians 16:14 Do everything in love. John 13:34–35 describes what a disciple of Christ looks like… What does your love life look like? When we love God, when our hearts are tuned to him and his heart, then we will have His love for the people around us. His love overflows from within as we take more of him in. It is truly Luke 6:38 “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you give it out, it shall be measured to you again”. Love and it shall be given back to you… overflowing. Don’t be tight with it or give grudgingly, or give out of guilt because he warns… either way, you will receive the same. “See what great love the Father has LAVISHED on us, that we should be called children of God!” 1 John 3:1, Verse after verse, precept after precept, we see the example of His lavishness. And He said – WE WILL love just like Jesus said… just as He loves us…we will love one another. As the potter, he keeps shaping and molding us into His image…into his vessel of love, appreciation, thoughtfulness, and kindness. Not for a holiday or a festival but a lifestyle of joyous living and loving and appreciating those we have around us. We cannot go back and redo those past moments. We cannot take those words back or redo some of those ugly actions, but we can make a true heart change…be intentional about loving every day for the rest of our lives. Of giving ourselves away as the servant that Jesus embodied when He gave it all for you. Yes, YOU specifically, by name, with an assigned purpose of loving everyone in your path as you walk out your salvation in the greatest gift of all time. The never-ending, Love of Christ Jesus himself. It isn’t just about saying I Love You…but showing it…living it… sacrificing your comfort or agenda for someone else. We are each a temple of God the Holy Spirit. God in us…The Hope of Glory! We cannot…But he can! We will fail, but with Christ, we can do all things!… We can be different…talk differently…love differently and change the world differently…just like Jesus did, and just like he does now when His children surrender all of this “Other Stuff” to Him and give him control. You know… to someone who knows what is going to happen. Someone who has your best interest at heart. Someone he is creating to be an image far beyond what you could ever envision for yourself. The image of loving those around us as the filter of our living. Yes, even the unlovable. Yes, that even means loving yourself. If we could know the last time we could say I Love You? We can do something even better. We can let them see in us what many have always prayed for…believed for… and some…. lived for. This person would rather spread the love of Jesus abroad than be watered life down with the anxieties of the world’s ways… in every sense. John 1:12 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” Beth Jones said, “What a fabulous right – the right to become children of God! Think about the joy, benefits, security, stability, blessings, favor, and continual love a child receives from a good earthly father. How much more does our Heavenly Father provide…. all of these good things for us — His children?” We can know the last time we could say I Love You… by making it a way of life…a way of being all we can be through Christ Jesus our Lord. If you would like to pass this lesson and future devotions to someone, send them this Signup link: http://eepurl.com/gKlklD My website to view past devotions is https://fearlesslycourageous.com Lauren Daigle You Say https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIaT8Jl2zpI |
