Hafa Adai, Aloha, Talofa, and Malo E Lelei!
James 1:22-24 says, “But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in the mirror, for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.”
I consider scripture primary in my life by trying, one day at time, to embody God’s holy written Word. To not just be a hearer of it, but also a doer. I am part of a generation that prizes independence, being self-made, and “getting to the top” alone. While those can all be nice attributes to have, as a church, “self” contradicts the love of Christ that binds all of scripture together. To really dive into scripture, we would then understand that Christ was and is the personification of the Word. That the Word existed in the beginning, the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1). Being that LOVE is the weaved-in-theme of the Word; Love existed in the beginning, Love was with God, and Love is God.
As children and as a church of God, scripture calls us to love selflessly and wholeheartedly. I do what I can to reflect and be a window of that biblical love. That’s how we make others feel like they belong in our own lives and in the life of the church—- we love everyone and anyone no matter of their race, gender, religion, age or past. I carry one conviction with me, the same one, every day and it is the
overwhelming fact that God could ever love someone like me. Someone who has walked in and out of the trenches of sin yet is still cherished, loved, blessed, and highly favored by the King of All Glory.
When we make the Word of God primary in our lives and in our church it begins to take root and transforms us, creating space in our hearts and at the table for those we never imagined ourselves sitting with. Being just “hearers” of the Word is forgetting that space once had to be made for us in the heart and and at the table of Christ. But when we also become “doers” of the Word, we mirror the same love that was shown unto us by Christ himself.
For the rest of my life, in all that I do, scripture will always be primary in my life through my actions and way of living. I will continue to love as Christ loves me. I will continue to serve as Christ serves me. I will continue to lay my life down, just as greater love has no one than this: that He would lay down His life for a friend (John 15:13).
Valerie Hungalu
Guam United Methodist Church.
