Love always trusts.
Love never loses faith.
Love hopes for the best.
God has used the past four months to teach me a lot about love. From month one in Albania, He has pressed it into many lessons. First, it was learning to see God loved me and the specific ways He showed it to me. At the same time I was learning about love within my team. I read 1 Corinthians 13 over and over again trying to grasp the meaning of always trusting, never losing faith in people, and hoping the best for them.
A conversation in month two with two of my teammates made me realize a pretty important characteristic about myself: I’m really good at loving people, like to the point where it seems foolish to others. My teammates and I were painting a fence when they began asking me some tough questions about my family. They wanted to know if I had any unforgiveness towards my parents. This wasn’t a new question for me. When you find your dad after 21 years for the first time, people want you to be mad about it. They don’t understand how you cannot be.They want you to be cautious because they don’t want you to get hurt.
Do you know what I did?
Jumped in head first.
Immediately, I began talking to my new siblings. I started calling them my brothers and sisters. I referred to Scott as my dad. Nothing else even occurred to me. My aunt told me not to call them my siblings because I hadn’t grown up with them, but that just didn’t matter to me. In my very first contact with my older brother he said this to me:
“In the end, although I have never met or spoken with you, have no idea who you are, know this: you are loved by me at least, just because we share the same blood. I will do anything in my power to help you in any way I can.”
And that’s what true love is supposed to be. We love each other based on nothing of the other person. Even if we can’t see anything good, love tells us to find the good in them. It tells us that loving them can redeem them; being loved by someone can redeem the bad qualities. That’s just what Jesus did for us. He didn’t die on the cross because we were loveable; he died because he is loving. Someone, like me, who has struggled much in this life is only able to love because Jesus has loved me so well. He has continually shown me love throughout my life and I have pursued it time and time again despite being hurt.
About two years ago, a good friend of mine and I really hurt each other. I pushed her away at just the time I needed her most. I was in a really dark place. She was trying to help me, but I wouldn’t let her. We’re still not friends because of what happened. I have written emails, called her, and tried to talk to her in person, but she will not speak more than a few words to me. I spent a long time beating myself up about it and felt hopeless about the situation. It took over a year before I was able to be around her and not feel awful about myself. In spite of how much she has hurt me, I would be her friend again in a heartbeat if she’d forgive me. You could chalk this up to me being insecure and needing people to accept me, but since love says to believe the best, I have to apply that to myself as well. And for the first time in my life, that’s what I’m going to do.
God has given me the gift of being able to overlook people’s faults and wrongdoings, so I can just love them. I’m not always good at this, but having faith in people and extending grace comes easier to me than others. I just love to love people. Despite all the bad in this world, all the darkness around us, the Light still shines brighter.
