love your neighbor.

i've been thinking a lot about christianity.  and God.  and what He really is calling me to do while i'm here.  and i've been searching for sermons.  and truth along these lines.

i've mentioned before how much i love francis chan.  he's a preacher in california.  my friend laura introduced him to me.  he is very much a red letter christian.  follows and studies what Jesus said in the bible.  what He called us to do.

i appreciate this because so often i think we hear our preachers say something...and we run with it.  like those were God's words for us.  and maybe sometimes they are.  but no one is perfect.  and so i think there is a fine line somewhere about following what your preacher says (or someone you trust) versus following what God says.  or what Jesus said.

what i've been finding is all in the same vein as what jen hatmaker talks about in 7.

paring down to the minimum.  for many reasons.

one.  to get closer to Him.  to depend more on Him.
two.  because none of that really makes us happy anyway.
three.  because the money that we spend on the stuff that gets in the way, the stuff that doesn't really matter anyway could and probably should be used for other people who aren't able to buy what they need SIMPLY TO SURVIVE.

it's the whole, "may i learn to live simply so that someone else may learn to simply live" motto.

i have this visa gift card from my mom.  she put it in my stocking.  it's like a 50 dollar gift card.  and it's in my nightstand.  sitting there.  has been since christmas morning.

when i opened it, she said, "instead of spending money on crap to put in there, i thought you should have this.  and so you could go buy yourself something you really want."

totally my mom.  totally.

and so i've been trying to think of something i want.  maybe merging it with the leftover dillards gift card i have from clint from my bday.

but everytime i see that card, and everytime i try to think of something i want, i hear a little voice say, "look around you, hannah.  what could YOU possibly NEED?"


and so i close the drawer.  and in all honesty, i hope that maybe one day i open it and don't hear the voice and i can take it and go buy a wonderful purse at tjmaxx.  because i love me some shoes and purses.

but see, i don't NEED a purse.  and so i keep holding onto the visa card. because at my core, i know that it shouldn't be used on me.  it should be used on someone in NEED.

all of this to say, francis said yesterday in a sermon, "until we learn to love our neighbor as ourself, we don't need to learn any other lesson.  because that (second to "love your God with all your heart, soul and mind) is the most important lesson we should be teaching."

and so i'm back at square one.  wondering how to not only learn that for myself (sometimes it's an easy lesson.  like for my friends. but sometimes it is so, so hard) but how to teach it to my children.

i wish i could remember what all he said.  it's worth listening to.  i downloaded a free app called "podcasts" from the itunes store.  and searched francis chan.  the sermon i'm talking about is called "living unpredictably" and it's from "podcast: strong fire burn".  it's worth the free download.  go get it and listen.  and let me know what you think.

more later.