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There was this bunch of youths behind me as I was walking home from work just now... I was crossing the road when I heard one of them randomly shouting out curses to someone's dad and mom and family and what nots...

It really reminded me of yesterday night's lesson.

And I wonder if this particular youth has ever really gotten his bucket filled before.

His love bucket.

Human relationships are intricate as such. You can't possibly go up to that youth and hug him and tell him that God loves him or you love him for that matter and expect things to take a hundred and eighty degree turn for the better.

Because love doesn't remain just in words... but in action.

Everyone of us has a love bucket. It first gets filled by parents, then by relatives... friends... and community.

For some, you turn the tap of the bucket and nothing drips out.

And they can't be put to blame.

Because they never knew what love is.

The silence from emptiness in the bucket gets so loud that they decide to overturn the bucket and shut themselves out. The outer shell hardens to conceal the emptiness within... because they know that there's really nothing inside of which they can give.

As the lesson went on yesterday night, I wondered where God is in the bucket. So if someone comes with an empty bucket and acknowledges God's presence in his life, does that mean that his entire bucket can be immediately filled by "God" and that the person will be able to start to love others?

Then the word jumped out - Community.

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother." - 1 John 4:7-21

I believe that God does not withhold the blessings of community from those who do not believe... but it is only through a faith community that we see people drawn closer to Him.

And as I looked back... I can only give thanks for the many people He's sent to love, guide, teach... till the point He took over and made His love so real in my life.

:)

Jayden Smith, Will Smith's real son, cracked an all familiar joke in the movie "Pursuit of Happyness". He recounted that there's a man drowning in the sea praying to God for help. A ship sailed by - the crew wanted to pull him up but he rejected the offer and insisted that God would help him. Another ship passed by and the crew offered help... and he rejected it again.

When the man went up to heaven he questioned God and asked why God didn't help him.

"I sent two ships to pass by... didn't you see them?"

:)