My day here in Malaysia usually started with me getting up at 6 am, spending some time with God, making some coffee, and getting ready to teach English. And we didn’t teach just anyone–we taught kindergarten. You cannot fathom the cuteness.
Weekly we had to go to another school in a rural area to join middle schoolers and speak English with them. Basically the program was for them to have their standard English classes during the day, then to have conversation with us to get them used to actually using what they’re learning. Because this program was so new, we ended up being on the national Malaysian news and in a couple national Malaysian newspapers.
Of course that’s how things work.
Yeah, I don’t get it either.
So that’s what our primary assignments were. And I loved it and thought it was great considering how many opportunities are opened up for someone that knows English out here. Long term it can change their future.
But.
There was still that side of me that felt a little too limited and down.
Not being able to share the gospel with so many people (legally) was rough.
I decided to take some time every morning to pray for the people of this town,
for the people in this specific neighborhood,
for the people we encounter everyday while getting coffee or roti,
for the people that our hosts encounter,
and more.
If I couldn’t bring the good news directly,
I was going to intercede on behalf of those who have not heard it yet.
I was going to do what I can to help my ministry partners for the battle ahead.
I started praying for my team,
for my squad,
and for myself.
That we would love each other as ourselves.
You see, we have all sorts of logical ways to convince people of the validity of the scriptures. There are all sorts of books and articles (including non-Christian ones) that talk about the reliability of the Bible’s historical documentation. We have ontological, teleological, and cosmological arguments for God’s existence. Not to mention the various scientific studies that are based purely on creationism.
But.
That’s not how the scriptures argue for themselves at all.
The scriptures basically say the church and their love is supposed to be the evidence that Jesus came and rose from the grave.
What?
That doesn’t make any logical sense.
So in John 17:21-23 Jesus is basically talking about loving God, and loving one another, and abiding with Him. Then look at that last verse:
“I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
That’s it?
That’s how we’re supposed to convince people that this whole Jesus thing is legit?
By loving each other,
by loving nonbelievers,
and being united?
But think about it.
That’s not what the universal church looks like right now.
At home the church is used for the other side of the argument.
“I know those people who go to that church.
They’re always so rude and judgmental.
There’s no way this is the truth.”
People use the church to justify saying that Jesus is not the Messiah.
Maybe this John 17 passage is onto something.
Even though I still desired to share the good news,
maybe I could take this time to learn to love better.
This is going to take a long time.
It’s going to take a lot of work.
And I’m going to have to learn to put God’s will before my own.
I’m going to have to learn how to put His heart for others before my own entitled opinions.
I used to be decent at that.
(working on it again now)
I would pray all the time,
“God, help me to see others the way you see them.
It doesn’t matter if I have anything in common with them
or if I disagree with all their beliefs
or if I think they’re just downright awkward to talk to
or if they say terrible things to me everyday.
I want to love others the way you love me.”
It might take a long long long time.
It might take praying something similar to that prayer over specific people many times.
Every day.
Maybe many times a day if need be.
One of the best passages to learn about love is 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13
If I had to choose one Bible passage to meditate on every day for the rest of my year it would be that one (and I might do just that.)
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
1 Corinthians 13: 1-3 ESV
So what this passage is saying is that I could be a boss prophet,
have the faith the move mountains,
sacrifice all my belongings,
and even give up my life,
but without love I am nothing.
All that other stuff doesn’t matter at all.
That’s crazy.
But you know that’s what the Bible says,
and it kind of makes sense.
Without love it doesn’t matter what I do for God or what I do in his name.
“Love never ends. As for prophesies; they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.”
1 Corinthians 13: 8-10 ESV
