Day 12 :: Living Stone of LOVE

Join us for the 12 Day YMCA Devotion Series – LIVING STONES: LEAD, CARE AND SERVE LIKE JESUS

How can we be ‘like Living Stones’ used by God to strengthen the presence of Christ where we lead?

Recently, 24 YMCA leaders with the OnPrinciple program visited 12 places throughout the Holy Land where Jesus taught about how to live and lead in God’s kingdom.

From this experience comes 12 spiritual leadership principles – or Living Stones – (inspired by 1Peter 2:4-5) that Christ-followers can embody as we are being built up to lead, care and serve everyone, like Jesus.

by Tim Hallman, Christian Emphasis Director with the YMCA of Greater Fort Wayne

“It’s so dark and loud, I can’t believe how intense and crowded it is up here” I whispered to myself as a few of my friends squeezed through the dense throng with me in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at the end of the Via Dolorosa.

We were in the Old City of Jerusalem trying to see the eleventh and twelfth stations of the cross, where Christ is depicted as being nailed to the cross and then dying on it.

Standing there in the dim candlelight and swirling incense, I wondered what it would have been like for the Lord’s beloved disciples and family as they tried to see him on the cross.

Bewildered? Terrified? Heart-broken? Wondering: “How could this happen?” “Why did this happen?”

We’ve all had our own moments of dark grief, loud confusion, and intense fear; there is no escaping suffering in this world, it is all around us in spirit, mind, and body.

Kierkegaard comments that when we suffer patiently this is not specifically Christian, freely choosing to suffer, though, is.

Jesus willing and freely chose to suffer and die on the cross – it is both our salvation from sin and an example to us on how to sacrificially lead and love.

Especially as Christian leaders, we imitate Christ Jesus when we follow his example of practical compassion to those who are suffering and thirsty for loving help – organizing and inspiring from start to finish.

The work that God gave Jesus to do was triumphantly completed on the cross, and our Lord was faithful to the finish, which included suffering at the hands of those he loved and was sent to save.

When Christians lead with sacrificial love, when we choose to suffer from others, we are allowed to share in word and deed the Good News of Christ Jesus and what he finished on the cross.

What is the sacrificial work God has given you to finish in your community, with your friends and family, in your congregation or workplace?

What has Christ been calling you to finish, to complete, to bring to an end for those in your midst who need a drink of hope and forgiveness?

May the suffering and compassionate Jesus be an example to you in spirit, mind, and body to finish what you started, sustaining you as living stones sacrificially leading, loving, and serving where he has sent you.

“Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”

A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”

With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

Gospel according to John, 19.28-30 NIV

This YMCA devotion series brought to you by onPrincipleclick here to learn more about it – a new leadership development program to strengthen the presence of Christ in the YMCA

Click here for the entire devotion series as a downloadable PDF booklet.

Click here to access entire devotion series on YouVersion

Author: Tim Hallman

Serving the YMCA of Greater Fort Wayne as their Director of Christian Emphasis since 2016 to inspire, empower, and mobilize members and staff to live out our mission of putting Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all. Contact me for speaking engagements, consulting, resources, and collaboration regarding ways the Christian faith can be an inspiring and inclusive dimension of diversity in your YMCA.

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