"I wrote the book for my own sanctification and for others to understand what sanctification means in their lives," says Rev. Tom Berlin, who serves as the lead pastor at Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon, Virginia, and is the author of Reckless Love.

The 2020 Lenten video study will feature the cabinet members of the Dakotas and Minnesota Conferences and the book, Reckless Love: Jesus' Call to Love Our Neighbor. Berlin shares that reckless love is all about living out the Great Commandment—"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." (Matthew 22:37).

Sanctification means that we strive to sanctify someone, to empower them to live out the call and gifts God has for their lives. There are six ways to live out the Great Commandment that Berlin details in Reckless Love: begin with love, expand your circle, lavish love, open-hearted love, value the vulnerable, and emulate Christ.

The first way is to begin with love. Berlin says, "What would happen if we began every conversation, every interaction with another person, every day, with love? What if we just began with love?"

The Rev. Tom Berlin, lead pastor at Floris UMC in Virginia and author of Reckless Love, presents during the 2019 United Methodist General Conference in St. Louis. Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.

Expand your circle is the second way to live out the Great Commandment. "Many of us have a relational circle of people that we surround ourselves with that look like us, talk like us, are just like us," says Berlin. "What if we would open ourselves up and get to know people who are beyond our little world? What might happen?"

Lavish love the third way to live out love; "lavish" is both a verb and an adjective. It describes love and it encourages us to offer it to others in a certain way. "There is a habit that, once gained, will enable you to keep the first great commandment, and the second as well," says Berlin. "What if we lavished love? So when we did something in love it was lavish. What if we used lavish as a verb? What if we intentionally began our day and planned how to love other people intentionally?

A fourth way to live out the Great Commandment is through open-hearted love. "Often, we are closed off to other people, especially people that are different than us," Berlin says. "How we see other people has a dramatic impact on our ability to love them. What blocks your vision when you look at another person? The love of Christ gives us the ability to love others."

The fifth quality, value the vulnerable, is about math. "I learned all about math and was so excited about the concept of the value of things. The math concepts of greater than, less than, and equal fascinated me," says Berlin. "Later in life, I learned that Math was great understanding the value of things but not people.  Jesus noticed the people others ignored. He spent time with those others avoided. Jesus love enables people to discover their value, and the value of the love they offer others. How can we do the same?"

The last quality to love recklessly is to emulate Christ. "What does it mean to emulate? It means to pattern your life to be just like someone, or to exceed," says Berlin. "Jesus is really good at loving. I want to be like Jesus. It is hard work."

Floris suggests, "Maybe we have it a little backward. We strive to follow Jesus' teaching to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, which, in turn, we hope will help us better love our family, friends, neighbors along with everyone else. We may find that becoming a better neighbor leads us into the deep and loving relationship we're striving to have with God."  

At Floris UMC, Berlin and members of the congregation try to live out the Great Commandment by extending beyond the church walls, going out into the community, stepping out of their comfort zone. They live out the acronym BELOVE—the six qualities of love from the book, Reckless Love.

"The book is about steps, strategies, and plans we can make to live out the Great Commandment, says Berlin, "How do we do this one thing that Jesus commanded us to do—love God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength?" 

Listen to this sound clip to learn more about Berlin and Floris UMC. Learn more about the 2020 Lenten study here.