LET LOVE BE
Africa and her orphans have done something irrevocable to my soul, having shaped me into a messenger and an advocate for the motherless, hungry and other vulnerable children in her heat. After years of finding ways to bring water or food, provide school fees, blankets and other needs, what they keep thanking me for is my love. But I know this love and it isn’t mine. For it to be mine would imply that I brought it up and out and gave it away but only Jesus can do that. So, I’ve looked at His life and studied His feet, sensed the movement of His Spirit and all that I can see is love. Soft love. Hard love. Even disciplinary love and ultimately unfathomable sacrificial love. And the Bible asks, even challenges us to live and walk like He did. We know how difficult that is but still His example hangs stretched out before us. Do we watch and observe or look away? I believe we are supposed to imitate Him until it becomes real in us, His love that works wonders, because after all we are the ones charged with carrying out his mission of love. Every single thing He has done demonstrates our way. This is the challenge - that we would let His love be in us so much so that we become love at every turn and every standing still. This may be complicated but yet it is this simple … that we would let love be the underlying, common denominator in every aspect of our lives, what drives the things we do day in and out. That love would be our bottom-line in relationships, at work, and parenting. That love would be the motivation in why we carry out tasks and chores, resolve conflict, acquire things and that it would be the object of our desires … love to a world of hurting people. Sometimes we try to place our love in people, things and experiences, which is misguided at best. Let’s ponder this, that Jesus invited us to “follow” him. In repeated instances the New Testament shows us that Jesus would ask his disciples as he chose them, one by one, to leave whatever they were doing (working, family, etc.) and walk with him. We can imagine it as him saying something akin to “follow me and I’ll meet your needs for work, enjoyment and relationship.” In this modern age, however, we tend to focus first on meeting our needs for these things and then to give Jesus whatever we might have leftover; a couple of minutes for prayer or possibly a few moments for devotional or Bible reading. I believe we are tragically missing out. Jesus’ focus for healing was love, as was his focus for salvation. He rescues because he loves and redeems and restores out of and because of His great love. Love was his constant motivator, his reason for everything. It is possible for us, and maybe even necessary for us to live with the same set of desires and intentions. To let love be the reason for everything. In order to let love guide our hearts, focus our minds and lead our lives, we have to be intentional about putting it in front of us and then to go where it goes. What if we thought about every little (or big) thing in terms of love? Love that is patient and kind, that puts others first and recognizes the weaknesses and wounds in others to know that they might need special handling? I believe we can do this. With God’s power, anything is possible.
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