He’s seventeen and his life is not where he thought it would be. His choices are what got him here. His depressed outlook on life is displayed all throughout his body. Between shucking the corn and carrying the load, he walks slowly down the line being ordered by prison guards. Throughout the day as the sun scorches his skin, all he hears is words that don’t display love. In a moment of anger, he doesn’t want to respect those words. But that attitude of actions is what got him where he is today. He has lost his freedom. He is convinced that he is not loved but this is what he believes he deserves. My obvious curiosity would see a young man named Paul, surrounded by a community of failure, yet I am certain the Lord placed me in his life that day to share God’s love.
“Love is not self seeking. Genuine love is never self-motivated. It’s always about the good of others. Love always places others above itself. When we open ourselves, we open ourselves for love.”
I don’t know I fully understand what it means to give all of myself as it is asked of me. I do know what it is like to love halfheartedly, to keep the most vulnerable part of me guarded. But this day was different. I wasn’t looking for a day to be challenged but a day to get my hands dirty. And this was the day that it came most natural. It wasn’t of me but of Christ. I shared a morning working in the cornfields with a young man who made some bad decisions down the road. Even though Paul’s reasons for being in the field that day were different then mine, we still needed that touch of God’s love. I don’t know how much of an impact I made in Paul’s life that day but I do know God’s love was all over him that day. When my time there came to an end, I shared my delight in how much I appreciate him working with me today. As we drove off, he had this smile from ear to ear.
“be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1-2
