love God. love neighbor. love yourself.

This blog will be a place for conversation and reflection about what I call the "three-fold guideline for life."  A highly-educated person once asked Jesus, "Which commandment in the law is the greatest?"  (In our day, we might say, "How can a person live well?  How can I have a meaningful life?  What's the most important thing?"  In Jesus' day, this person talked about 'the greatest commandment.')

In response, Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."  (There will be no throwing out your brain, and just mindlessly following orders with Jesus.)  He then immediately went on to say, "A second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"  (If you want to read the text in the Bible, you can go here.)

Some people may say this is a two-fold commandment -- love God, love neighbor.

But I believe Jesus' commandment is three-fold -- love God, love neighbor, love yourself.

All three are crucial.

If we leave out any one of the three, our lives will be impoverished.

When we pursue all three, our lives can be grounded, joyful, and strong.

Some of the time, we need to focus more of our attention on God.  Other times, we will find that we are not giving enough attention to our neighbors.  And there will also be times when we will find that we are not giving enough attention to ourselves - to our dreams, to our own needs, to our own passionately held convictions.

We've gotta be doing all three.  That's what we'll be doing with and through this blog.  Come along and join the fun.