The Love Revolution

I have been wanting to read The Love Revolution ("TLR") ever since finishing, and then re-reading, Reduce Me to Love ("RMTL").  Both of these books are by Joyce Meyer.

This book was definitely worth reading, and it is one that will remain in my collection and referenced back to many times over the years.  I do have to say that I found this book to be a bit overwhelming, but I think that is the way God intended it, at least for me.  I had to do some digging deep and face some facts about myself that are not exactly exciting. 

The pledge you take, if you decide to become a part of "The Love Revolution" is as follows: 

I take up compassion and surrender my excuses.

I stand against injustice

and commit to live out simple acts of God's love.

I refuse to do nothing.  This is my resolve.

I AM THE LOVE REVOLUTION.

Meyer addresses many facets of loving, through God.  Human love fails.  God's love does not.  We have to choose to put on God's love and go about our daily lives being a blessing to others and loving our neighbor as ourselves.  Meyer emphasizes Christ's care for the orphans, widows, the poor, and the oppressed.  She references Psalm 140:12, Psalm 68:5, James 1:27, and many more verses in this area.  But, she also gets down to the simple, the person that is just hard to love because they are different than you. 

There were a few things about this book that I was not as excited about, that I feel the need to point out.  A few times, Meyer talks about her experiences as a member of various congregations and I feel that she speaks of these various situations almost in an "I told you so" tone, as if they had wronged her and this was her way of setting the record straight.  While that bothered me, I suppose the example may have been necessary to show what Christ's love is not.  I will hold off on reading another of Meyer's publications for quite some time, as after two of them in a row I started to feel that she was very proud of herself and proud of the things she has done  She should be.  But, love does not boast, and it just added up by the end of TLR.

As I said, I found this overwhelming.  Mainly because it opened my eyes to my own ignorance.  All of the tragedy in the world, and I have never been touched by any of it.  I have never been touched by poverty.  I had no idea how many young girls in third-world countries are sold in to prostitution so that their families can survive.  There were so many ways that Meyer mentioned we can love and bless and be a part of "The Love Revolution" and I was also overwhelmed with that and just plain "where do I begin?".  Meyer mentions, to begin, just set out to bless one person a day.  Maybe it is a simple smile, or letting someone go ahead of you in line.  I pray that you and I will go forward as a blessing, humble ourselves to serve and lift up others, and pray that God would show us where and how we are to serve.