W. Oscar Thompson Jr., in Concentric Circles of Concern, says that we are designed to be channels of God’s love.

We get that messed up. We love with the goal of being loved. We look for people to love us. But that gets things out of order. If we’re serious about adopting a Jesus style, we should love first and love regardless of the love is flowing back.

A few days back I posted about people who feel left out and unloved. No matter what we do, it’s not enough for them. Thompson says that is because they have the stream of love flowing the wrong way. They are sitting back and waiting to see who will love them and always have an abundance of people who let them down.

When we focus on being like Christ, seeing and meeting needs in love regardless of how we feel about it, we move from being stagnant to being amazed at how God uses us. We discover purpose in Christ. We stop focusing on how others treat us and instead focus on how we treat others.

It makes sense.