My Friend Bob Pace

My friend Bob Pace died last week. We had his funeral last Monday. I've never been to a more God-honoring memorial in my life! It was truly awesome! Bob was a great individual and a true friend. He loved God passionately and he had this desire to see God's people spiritually formed. In fact, he told a friend that the reason most Christians never grow up spiritually is because they don't know what it means to love God. He said that Christians need to focus on loving God and then all the other stuff that goes with being a follower of Christ will take care of itself. I think he is so right! What if we spent more time learning what it means to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength? Can you imagine what that would do to a person? It would revolutionize every facet of a person's life! There's no way they would be the same. Life would hold new meaning, relationships would take on a whole new life and the world would look so different from their point of view. You could not possibly stay the same. So maybe we need to stop spinning our wheels worrying about being better christians or running to another meeting on church growth or being concerned about creating another study guide on what it means to be a mature christian. Maybe we just need to focus on loving God. I have a sneaking suspicion Bob is smiling right about now as he's discovered the love of his life is far greater than anything he could ever imagine! Love has never looked so good to him right now! "We love because He first loved us!"