Okay so let’s be out front and open from the get go. Historically speaking, I do not like people. In fact, a year ago, to say that I did not like or approve of people in general, would be an understatement. Unless you were a person who I did miraculously approve of, I almost always tended to look at people as merely things that were simply in my way. For a majority of my life, I purposely chose to live by having such astronomically low expectations of others, just so that I could be surprised often. Moral of the story? People were a bigger waste of my time to me than, lets say, soccer. And that’s saying a lot. I despise soccer. Now? Well, things are a little bit different. Wanna know what I did on the plane coming home from Training Camp? I, emphasis on “I”, started up a conversation . . . about Jesus . . . for TWO HOURS . . . with someone I had never met.
In the past I would have been perfectly content within myself if I had just looked out the window for the duration of the entire flight. However, God has seriously changed me through all that I have experienced since being accepted into The World Race. Sacrificing for others less fortunate than myself around the world, voluntarily spending quality and heartfelt time with people, and LIKING these people? WHATS HAPPENED TO ME?! God happened.
Since being accepted into The World Race God has been working on and in my heart almost daily and one of the big focus points that He’s been hitting on is my feelings towards people. In the past people have offended me, hurt me, and humiliated me almost without fail and so in response I put up walls around myself to not only protect myself but to keep myself at peace and my time valuable. I had no interest in assisting or caring for people because I simply saw the vast majority of people in the world as simply stupid wastes of space. But turns out God wasn’t all to big on these feelings.
In a series of events that I can only define as God ripping down the walls to my heart, He has shown me that people are indeed worth the effort and time to love and minister to. I would like to say that the woman I talked to on the plane gave her heart to Christ and experienced a spiritual revival, however this is not the case. No, we just talked. Maybe all that woman needed was just to be heard, valued, and respected, and to just hear of what a loving relationship with God looks like. And you wanna know something even crazier? I thoroughly enjoyed this little experience.
As The World Race races towards me two months from now, I realize that people are not the unintelligent monsters that I perceived them at all to be. Sure they do stupid things from time to time, and there are going to be some that will hurt you, but God has shown me that they weren’t the problem in the past. No, that distinction belongs to me. Attitude is a choice, and instead of loving unconditionally like God calls us to, I thought it would be better to cut them off and leave them where they were. I chose resentment and bitterness over love. So when God placed a calling on my heart to go on The World Race I knew that my feelings towards others would have to change.
For the longest time I saw children as mindless monsters, teenagers as opinionated brats, and adults as bigoted ignorance. However, since God has been working on my bigoted ignorance of others, He has shown me not just what others truly are but how important others are as well.
There will always be stupid people in the world, and yes I sometimes still struggle with dealing with them. However, I love these people and everyone else now. God has worked wonders in my life by showing me that not only that I can love others, but that I would be willing to die for others both spiritually and physically so that they can experience the God who loves us more than we could ever possibly love anybody. And you can too!
So I challenge you again, who is it you could show love to? Who is it that you’re holding a grudge against and could love more? And how can you love more in general? For me, love is The World Race.
