The past several weeks I have learned so much about intimacy with God and learning to live in the knowledge of God’s presence; learning to invite Him into everything I do and find joy and thankfulness in the mundane things of life. This is a very hard discipline and I will hopefully spend my entire life either living or striving to live in this discipline. But it by no means that I should think this life is just about me and God. There is everything to learn in the single relationship between myself and God; He alone deserves my undivided attention and devotion; yet being intimate with God requires loving on others. I want to share how I’ve loved on people during ministry this last week.
A couple weeks ago we got to do something during ministry that we don’t normally do. My team went into Paramos (not San Louis) to do ATL with Huzzah (the team there). We were split into groups and I was put with Gracie, Nick, and Caleb; I was immediately relieved when Caleb joined our team because he knows Spanish quite well. But to my disappointment Caleb told us that the Lord didn’t want him to translate for us.
Gracie told us how the main park is a place where people come when they are drunk and they as women have been harassed by them. Now that she was with men she wanted to minister to them somehow. We walked around praying for several minutes and then met back up to figure out what to do. As I had been walking and praying I had been thinking how useless this seemed. I want to talk with these people. I want to tell them about Jesus. I want to tell them that He can quench there thirst. I want to tell them that the satisfaction and comfort they are seeking can only be found in God’s love. But because I don’t know any Spanish I don’t know how I can help them.
I expressed all of this to the others. Caleb asked almost rhetorically, “Are you going to let that fear control your spreading of Jesus?” We went over to one of the men I had felt somewhat drawn to. Nick became our spokesperson because he knew the most Spanish. In the moment I really couldn’t understand a lot of what was going on. But despite our lack of Spanish he started to share his heart with us. He shared about the pains and hurts of his life and his confusions about how God could allow such things. We were able to encourage him to continue to seek God and that God would be his comfort and peace. Before we left the man told us that he never eats lunch in the park but that today he had felt led to do so. Super cool how obvious that the Lord brought Him here and led me to Him even though I hadn’t felt very led.
We met another man who was very drunk. As we initiated conversation with him pretty blatantly he said that he drinks because life sucks. I asked if he had a relationship with Jesus; he knew absolutely nothing about Jesus or the Gospel. We prayed over Him for soberness to hear and accept what we had to share. As I began to share the Gospel with him he was very receptive of it. Afterward he shared more about his life and how he now knew that Jesus was the only way. It felt so good to share the Good News of Jesus with someone who had never heard; someone who was so receptive of it too!
Later that week on Friday, Jordy, Blake, and I met this old man walking slowly down the street. As we initiated conversation with him he started rambling; we could tell he was drunk. We wanted to share the Gospel with him but God Tools wasn’t working and he definitely wasn’t in a state to clearly receive what we had to give. But we listened as he continued to tell us about who knows what.
Not all of these conversations had obvious fruit. And I don’t think I should expect all the conversations I have to have obvious fruit. I am not called to grow fruit in people; God will do that. I am simply called to be love to people. Whether or not I can share the Gospel with someone, simply initiating conversation with someone and letting them pour out their heart is showing them Jesus. Accepting and understanding where they are at and being compassionate and loving in that is showing someone Jesus even if I don’t explicitly talk about Jesus. Though I should try to bring up Jesus and lead them to Him if I can; for He can be their constant love while I can only love them temporarily.
Jesus said to love the least of these. He said that whoever feeds someone in His name, gives someone shelter in His name, loves someone in His name, is doing so to Himself. Then right before Jesus was crucified, the ultimate act of God’s love for man, He gave his disciples another commandment: to love others as He loves them. It is apparent that Jesus places a large emphasis on loving everyone all the time, no matter the circumstances.
1 John 4:19 says “We love because he [God] first loved us.” Yes and amen my heart replies. God has loved me so much and continues to love me so much! I do love Him in return. But the passage goes on in verses 20-21: “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” At this I am less enthusiastic. For I know that I don’t love others as He has loved me or even as much as I love myself. It’s easy for me to love God; He’s perfect and has perfect love for me. As an introvert it is easy for me to go and be alone with God and find peace and life in that. But fellow man is imperfect. They irritate and hurt me. When I love them they don’t appreciate it like I want. When they love me it is less than I feel I deserve. There is grace upon grace for my shortcomings but if I truly love God I cannot be purposefully negligent and ignore the so prevalent and important command to love others.
Although it is stretching for me to love my fellow brothers and sisters and the least of these, God has so much to teach me through it. First, loving the imperfect gives me more of an understanding of God’s love for me. He, in perfect holiness, loved me despite my sin and rebellion against Him. Second, loving those around me is the best way to share Jesus with someone. The best way to convince someone of something is by first convincing them of your love for them. If I tell someone the Gospel with a desire to correct them or to increase my own pride or ego they may be turned off to what I’m saying. But if they see the genuine love I have for them they will likely be more willing to open up and accept what I have to say. Third, loving those around me builds up community. As Proverbs says, as iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another. We are each an individual part of the church. We have much to learn from each other. We work best when we work together.
For the past months I’ve been very content in my relationship with God; so much so that I didn’t feel a deep need to build community. But I’m now realizing that as I grow in love for God my desire to love on others will grow as well. God has done so much for me and brought me so much peace and joy; how could I keep that to myself? He’s filled me so much. As He keeps filling me I cannot help but overflow and love others. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and that the second is equally as important; love everyone as much as you love yourself. Just now I’m realizing how related these two commands are. I cannot have one without the other. If I love God without loving those around me I reveal that I don’t truly love God because I am disobeying Him. And if I love man without loving God my love will be empty, fruitless, and leave me empty and weary.
My prayer is that I will continue to grow in love for the Lord. That my thoughts will ever be on Him. That I will be filled with joy and peace in His presence and that from that I will be filled more and more with an overflowing love to all people.
