The time is always right to do what is right. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Occasionally I have been asked how I would summarize the Gospel. My response is this:

There is a legend about the writer of the gospel of John. Unlike most of his contemporaries, he lived to be an old man with a large school of students around him. It is said that anytime he saw one of his pupils he would tell them to “love one another.” “Love one another.” “LOVE one another.” Finally, one of his students became so fed up with this practice that he said, “Love, love, love, love, love, love, love. Why are you always telling us to love?” “Ah,” said the old teacher, “because that is what my Lord commanded me to do. If you do nothing else, it will be enough.”

At the end of the day, the only thing God will ask us is how well we loved. Did we love our families to the best of our ability? Did we love our neighbors as ourselves? Did we seek justice in the world around us – binding up the brokenhearted and building up the powerless? Did we live love as a way of life?

If we truly wish to walk in Jesus’ footsteps, that is the way. It is just that simple. And it is just that hard.