Love the LORD your G_d with all your heart, all your soul, all your might. Love your neighbor as yourself. (Deut. 6.4; Lev. 19.18) Blessed are You O’LORD our G_d, King of the Universe, Creator of all things, for commandments of love – may we become a people that takes Your blessing of love towards us and become a blessing of love towards others.

When we talk about living counter-culturally (especially when speaking to our youthful folks) we tend to limit the discussion to “outside the cup” (Mt. 23) stuff…and even then the discussion tends to be too simplistic – stopping at: Music and Movie choices or profanity.

What about justice, mercy, and compassion? How many people in our faith today would rattle off those three things as descriptors of how they are living a Christ-filled life? Would you? What would be the top three descriptors of how your life reflects Christ-likeness?

When we truly start to get into those questions our entire way of life must change – not just a handful of arbitrary lifestyles – we must engage G_d in every aspect of our life while treating those around us the way that we would want to be treated (Mt. 7.12). I would wager that we’d all like to be treated with justice, mercy, and compassion!