It Really Is This Simple

Walking toward the exit, the once-orphaned now full grown man turns to the woman and says, "Thank you for loving me all those years ago."
She replies, eyes smiling, "Isn't that what it's all about?"

Fade Out.

This was the final scene in a family movie I viewed with my children this past weekend.

A simple, yet profound final statement:

Love.
Isn't that what it's all about?

While I was attending graduate school in Memphis, Tennessee, every semester at least once, a gentleman came and stood on the corner across the road from the Communication building and shouted to students entering campus,
"Repent!  The kingdom of God is near!  Turn from your sinful ways!  Repent!"
While holding a large sign which condemned sinners to hell.

No student ever stopped to talk with this man.
I witnessed sneers and laughter and scoffing. Not repentance.
Finally, unable to walk away again, I went to the man and asked,
"Out of curiosity, how many students have you led to the foot of Jesus?"
He was silent.
I asked again, "Are your methods effective at saving the lost?"
He could not answer.
His intentions were possibly right.
His method was intensely wrong.

How many people are led to the foot of the cross by condemnation?
How many lost are taught the intense love of their Creator and Savior through shouting?
I have my guesses at answers to these questions.
But that is not my main point.

Here is the heart of the matter:
Love.

The apostle Paul tells us this in his letter to the Corintians.
God said it Himself when He chose a tortuous death over eternity without me.

So, why am I saying anything else?
Am I saying to compromise convictions?
Not at all.

But why is that an either/or option?
It isn't.

Love.
Love People.

It really is what it's all about.

That.
And.
Nothing.
Else.