As a family physician doing primary care, some days are a real joy. Patients are those that I have seen before, they have taken their medications like they are supposed to, and what I did actually helped. Throw in a couple of baby visits and I go home with a smile on my face.

Then there are those days where all the stars align, in a bad way. The patients come in with their list of complaints and nothing that I have tried has had any effect at all. Some are demanding, others are just as frustrated because we can’t figure out what is going on. By the end of those clinic days I can’t even blog about what I’m thinking in my head.

I read this passage recently: ‘That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases.” Mark 1:32-34

It never ceases to amaze me to read about how Jesus received those who came to him for help. And those going to him weren’t well-to-do nice people, but the prostitutes, demon-possessed, lepers, and tax collectors. It should serve as a warning that those who recognized the truth about Jesus were not the religious elite whose lives appeared put together. No, it was the outcasts and those shunned by society who saw the hope of Christ, and subsequently experienced His compassion and love.

Sometimes it is hard to love, especially if you are expected to meet needs over and over again. And over and over again, I find myself falling short of God’s command to love as Christ loved us. But, I forget that Jesus also needed to spent time alone with His Father. After that night of healing the entire town, the very next verse in Mark says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

I keep asking God to help me grow in my love for others, to love like Jesus loves. Maybe God’s been telling me, “Come, experience my love first, again and again.”

How have you experienced God’s love recently?

(thanks Rich for the post idea!)