Put a Little Love in Your Heart
The Gospel According to Dolly Series
What happens when the songs of Dolly Parton meet the stories of Jesus? You get a gospel full of heart. The Gospel According to Dolly is a worship series that brings together scripture and song to tell the good news in a new key. Dolly’s lyrics do more than entertain. They testify. They speak of heartbreak and healing, of heaven and home, of a Savior who never walks away. In her music, we hear echoes of the gospel. In the gospel, we find the kind of grace Dolly sings about. This series invites us to listen closely and see Jesus through the lens of faith, tenderness, and ordinary acts of love.
Put a Little Love in Your Heart - Love was never just words
Reflection:
Go find an index card or sticky note or pull one up on your phone or computer. Just actually write this down.
Write down something that puts “a little love in your heart.”
Put that card or sticky where you can see it. Remind yourself that you are loved and that you love others. Loving is holy work. If you wrote down someone’s name. Tell them, “Your love makes me understand love. Your love helps me understand God’s love.” Loving is holy work.
John 10:29-30 (CEB)
“I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.”
Jesus didn’t just talk about love. Jesus lived Love. Even as he prepared to face betrayal and death, he gathered with his closest people and washed their feet. Every one of them. Including the one who would sell him out. Including the one who would deny him. Including the ones who would run. He knelt, served, and loved anyway. Jesus served the people he knew would betray him.
Then he said, “Just as I have loved you, you must love one another. This is how people will know you are mine.”
That’s the mark of a follower of Jesus.
Not how well you speak.
Not what side you’re on.
Not who agrees with you.
But how you love.
So here’s the real question: Who is hard for you to love?
Who is it hard for you to love lavishly?
Who is it hard for you to love generously?
Democrats? Republicans?
Immigrants? Government officials?
Drag queens? Trans people?
Woke young people? Angry older folks?
People who call themselves Christians then don’t act like it?
I’ll be honest. I struggle. There are people whose values and actions feel like a threat to what I hold dear. But being a Christ-follower doesn’t come with a free pass to write people off.
The hard truth of the Gospel is this:
We don’t get to hate people and still call ourselves followers of Jesus.
Jesus washed the feet of people who hurt him.
He shared meals with people who failed him.
To love like Jesus, we have to love the people who we think can do us harm. We have to love the people that we KNOW will harm us. This is a much harder commandment to follow.
That’s the example we were given.
It’s easy to say, “We love everyone.”
It’s harder to live like we mean it.
But love was never just words.
Not for Jesus. Not for us.
