Devotional: We Have What We Need to Practice Love

Dear God of Love and Justice,

A woman named Clara used to keep a folding chair in the trunk of her car. Every Tuesday evening, she'd set it up outside a laundromat on the south side of town and sit with whoever wandered in — single mothers folding tiny shirts, elderly men waiting on a single load of whites. She didn't run a program. She didn't have a budget. She just showed up with a thermos of coffee and the willingness to listen. When someone asked why she did it, Clara would say, "Jesus told me I'd find Him in places like this, so I went looking."

Lord, when I read Matthew 25 — when You say, "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was a stranger and you invited me in" — I confess I sometimes wait for a grand assignment. I look for the dramatic rescue, the missionary journey, the life-altering moment. But You are telling me that love is a folding chair and a thermos. Love is learning the name of the woman behind the register. Love is noticing who sits alone.

Father, I already have what I need. I have hands, hours, and a heart You are still shaping. Help me stop rehearsing excuses and start walking toward the people You have already placed in my path. Make me less like a committee and more like Clara — someone who simply shows up.