York County has not always been the easiest place to love. Our family’s move to York in 2004 from Raleigh, North Carolina was a bit of a culture shock.

One thing we learn from the farmer is that today’s fruit tells us about yesterday’s seed. What kind of seed have we been sowing in the fields called family and community?

“Help me understand” is the kind of slow, gentle, loving language that has the power to take your relationships from where they are today to something far more rewarding and fulfilling tomorrow.

Go ahead and cancel me for maintaining these friendships with my neighbors. These are people God has called me to love without exceptions or excuses.

Sorry. I'm not canceling my neighbor.

When I give thanks to God for giving Gail to me as a wife, there are massive implications. God’s providence is like a perfectly played orchestra, a masterpiece flawlessly executed by expert hands.

I am no mathematician, but the statistical probability of bringing two humans together is mind-boggling.

The Old Testament book of Jonah is one of the clearest expressions of God’s love for humanity. While most of the Old Testament is focused on God’s special care for the nation of Israel, Jonah reminds us that God’s love for our neighbors is not a new idea that simply started with Jesus or the New Testament.

“Hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others… but you are still distinct from it. You may even criticize it in yourself and wish you could stop it. But there may come a day when you can no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself, going on forever like a machine. It is not a question of God ‘sending us’ to hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will BE hell unless it is nipped in the bud. “

In the midst of busy lives, often chaotic schedules, and a fraying and raging world that demands our constant attention and loyalty, I am convinced we often miss the most lasting reality in life: love.

Love is the most important legacy you will leave. Love remains. Love never fails.