Set Your Mind Above

Episode #98 - You Are Loved

November 23, 2021 Season 1 Episode 98
Set Your Mind Above
Episode #98 - You Are Loved
Show Notes Transcript

We are so glad to be up here in North Carolina with our family for the Thanksgiving week. We really wanted to see Shane, who just finished some difficult treatments for his cancer. When I went down to the basement to get a few things, I saw a banner that the neighbors had left for him which read, "You Are Loved." They can't take away his cancer, but they can love him through it. Well...that's what we are called to do as Christians in bearing each others burdens. We can't fix it, but we can love others through it. It is when we love that we truly fulfill the law of Christ. 

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Welcome back to all of our listeners! I’m BJ Sipe, and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above podcast – where everyday ordinary events teach us extraordinary eternal truths. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today, I am excited to share my life and my faith with you, and I sure hope that you’ll do the same with me along the way. 

Yesterday afternoon we arrived safely in Deep Gap, North Carolina to spend the Thanksgiving week with my wife’s parents Shane & Gwen Vaughan. We are so thankful to be here for so many reasons. First, we absolutely love North Carolina – it is our favorite state. It’s where I met my wife’s extended family, it’s where we honeymooned, and it’s where we always return to escape from the world. Second, we desperately needed a week to catch our breath. Between family circumstances, ongoing sickness with our kids, meetings and everything else – Kylie and I have had almost no time for each other. To be up here in the mountains with family is exactly what our marriage needed this week. But most importantly, we really wanted to be up here to see Shane and support him after such a few hard weeks of treatment in his ongoing fight with cancer. Recently he underwent an intensive radioactive iodine application where he needed to be secluded for an entire week due to the fact that he was essentially a walking microwave. It was a heavy dose all at once, which made him miserable for most of the week as he secluded himself in the basement. We were so glad to see him upright and feeling great when we pulled in yesterday, and we are praying that going forward we will hear good news as a result of his recent treatments. As we got settled in, I went down to the basement to grab a few things with Shane and checked out his makeshift pad he had made for himself during his period of quarantine. He had mounted a small 32 inch TV up on the wall across from a full sized airbed he had elevated on an old bedframe. There was a microwave and a small foreman grill in the corner next to a patio table with two chairs. I was getting some hardcore bachelor pad vibes from back when I was in college, certainly not ideal, but it got the job done for the week. But what caught my attention more than anything else was something that was hung above the wall opposite his bed. Draped from the ceiling was a banner that read the following words, “You Are Loved.”  Apparently, before Shane came home to begin his recovery last week, their neighbors all snuck into the house to show their support for him. They left a large gift basket for him to enjoy while he quarantined downstairs and hung the large banner for him to see every time he looked up. I was so touched as I stood there looking at the banner, and I said a small prayer thanking God for surrounding Shane and Gwen with such a wonderful community of neighbors up here on their mountain. While they cannot fight Shane’s fight for him or take the cancer away, sometimes the best thing you can do to support someone is simply to remind them of how loved they are. Knowing that you’re loved gives you something to fight for, and to know that you’re not alone or forgotten in your struggles. 

Above all, we are to put on love – and to quote the words of the apostle Paul to the Philippians, there is great “comfort from love”. All of this got me thinking about what Paul also tells us in Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” What exactly is being said here? Because, if you’re like me, sometimes we look at a passage like this and think, “But there is nothing that I can do! How do I bear their burden?” And to an extent, sometimes there really isn’t anything we can do to fix it. We can’t take away the pain someone feels when they lose a spouse, a child, or a parent – nor can we bring them back from the dead. We can’t heal someone’s cancer, someone’s serious struggle with Covid, or any other health problem for that matter. We can’t get someone’s job back. We can’t bring someone’s unfaithful spouse back. But here is the deal – we are not called to do any of those things. In bearing one another’s burdens, we are not being asked to fix it. Look at the text again: it says that we help to bear one another’s burdens when we fulfill the law of Christ. What is the Law of Christ, because therein lies our answer? Let’s consider the progression of the things Jesus says to his disciples & in his prayer to God during the last supper as recorded in John 13-17. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35) “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:11-12) “This is what I command you: love one another.” (John 15:17) “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:26) So what is the law of Christ? I believe these, among many other places teach us very plainly that it is this: to love each other. When others are struggling, hurting, or afraid – sometimes there isn’t a whole lot you can do to remedy the situation. But you’re not called to fix it, you’re called to love each other through it. When someone is told and shown they are loved, that is what gives them the courage to press on and continue to fight. Knowing you are loved lifts burdens that nothing else can. Love is greater, more powerful, and more needed than anything else in this life. And you know what the best part is? Everyone has the ability to give it to others. If bearing one another’s burdens was solely dependent upon time, money, or expertise – then that would rule out a great majority of people from being able to obey this commandment. But as it is, being made in the image of God, every single one of us has the ability to give love to those who need it. Perhaps you are aware of others who are struggling right now with many different things. It might be their health, it might be emotional distress, it might be financial. Whatever it might be, help to bear their burden today by reaching out to say or do something that reminds them that even in their most dire situation that they are loved. To quote a song I loved back in high school by a band named Stellar Kart, “Someone loves you even when you don’t think so, don’t you know you’ve got me and Jesus by your side, through the fight, you will never be alone or on your own – you’ve got me and Jesus.” 

Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Tune in, Tuesday-Fridays, as a new podcast episode will be uploaded each day. Also, be sure to follow the Facebook page for the Set Your Mind Above podcast for future announcements and video sessions. As you have the opportunity, share these thoughts with your friends and family, and share with me what important lessons you are learning from every day, ordinary events. Until next time know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.