By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
-John 13:35

How did it come to be that the word "love" in the above scripture has been all but supplanted by other words unappealing and base? There are many: words like "rape", "kill", "molest", "cheat", "control" and "conquer". Indeed, there have been many examples of this in history and in homes even today.

More than ever, as our world deteriorates into darkness, true love becomes the salve of our failures as a species as well as the unstoppable weapon against the one who hated us from the beginning. If only we could just get that one thing right. Such a simple truth.

This love of the ages, this force that changes lives and destroys despair is not out of reach. The fullness of this love resides within you. Someone, right now, in your life, in your neighborhood, in your line of vision needs to know that such a love is possible...a living and vibrant love that meant for them to be; meant for them to see another day through eyes of gratitude, wet with the tears of victory.

Without this love ... all is lost.

How will they know us? Is it really by our love? Is it love by which our own friends know us? How would they answer? What of our children? our enemies?

The most precious love is the one that costs. I remember a man I had just met tell of his ordeal after the levies broke during hurricane Katrina. He, his wife and several dogs were rescued at the last minute by some random guy in a boat who was going back and forth, picking people up...at great risk to his own life.

There were acts of heroism like this happening everywhere. Right there, in the middle of the horrific reality of death, disaster and hopelessness, people loved other people.

As he told me this, it wasn't the story itself that affected me as much as the look in his eyes. He couldn't believe that someone would do that for him. To this man, it meant everything. All or nothing.

I don't know if the random boat man was a disciple of Jesus or not. But I do know that it was love that made him save all those people. To this day, my friend can't find the random boat man. If he could, he might say "hey, there is the guy who loved us enough to save us." This is the kind of love that changes everything.

It is the kind of love that we, as disciples of Jesus, should be known for ... not for how well we can cross the t's and dot the i's and not for how many different ways we can pretend that the world is fine as long as we can hide in church.

Change starts with love.