Words from Patrick
From my friend Patrick's blog:
"And it’s hard to love weird people, or at least hard for me. I mean, not just to understand that they have basic value as a human being. I mean to love them enough that you’d go out of your way to make sure they’re alright, to walk a different way home just that you’d go by them and say hi, that you’ll entertain their conversations with interest and delight even with subjects which they value but have little interest to yourself. To love them enough that you’re simply willing to put them above yourself, instead of excusing yourself from their conversations, never willing to share yourself with them as those who you do truly care about.
And its this thing that amazes me more about Jesus. It is unfathomable (not impossible) that He loves everyone even more than I love my closest companion. There is nothing we do that doesn’t interest him, there is no concern of ours that is beneath him, he’s never so busy that he cannot spend time with us. He doesn’t see someone walking down the street the way I do. I see a person, man or woman, roughly such an age, wearing this or that clothing; because that’s all I can see! I don’t even know their name. But God sees *James Kirkland, He sees every thought he’s ever had, He knows the history of the choices he’s made and all that he ever will do. He knows what James values in life, by what standards he lives every day, what is important to him. He knows the depth of James’ character, his passions, is tragedies and triumphs, and his bitterest struggles with the human condition. All the things that I love discovering about a person, and I admit the things that I forget are there beneath the surface of every person, God knows. That type of knowledge, of knowing people in a way that I barely know my best friends, is incredible. "
"And it’s hard to love weird people, or at least hard for me. I mean, not just to understand that they have basic value as a human being. I mean to love them enough that you’d go out of your way to make sure they’re alright, to walk a different way home just that you’d go by them and say hi, that you’ll entertain their conversations with interest and delight even with subjects which they value but have little interest to yourself. To love them enough that you’re simply willing to put them above yourself, instead of excusing yourself from their conversations, never willing to share yourself with them as those who you do truly care about.
And its this thing that amazes me more about Jesus. It is unfathomable (not impossible) that He loves everyone even more than I love my closest companion. There is nothing we do that doesn’t interest him, there is no concern of ours that is beneath him, he’s never so busy that he cannot spend time with us. He doesn’t see someone walking down the street the way I do. I see a person, man or woman, roughly such an age, wearing this or that clothing; because that’s all I can see! I don’t even know their name. But God sees *James Kirkland, He sees every thought he’s ever had, He knows the history of the choices he’s made and all that he ever will do. He knows what James values in life, by what standards he lives every day, what is important to him. He knows the depth of James’ character, his passions, is tragedies and triumphs, and his bitterest struggles with the human condition. All the things that I love discovering about a person, and I admit the things that I forget are there beneath the surface of every person, God knows. That type of knowledge, of knowing people in a way that I barely know my best friends, is incredible. "