As we drove away from our host family in Nepal, I kept thinking, “this goodbye is much harder than other.” I kept wishing I could steal this moment in time away and sit in it forever with the people who I had grown so close. I wanted to keep them.
But these are GOD’S people, not MY people and He is doing great things with them. As much as we joked, “can I just take you with me?” we can’t. We can’t collect people. People are not to be collected because they don’t belong to anyone other than God. Who am I to try and keep these amazing and beautiful people to myself? They are such an amazing gift to the world and I was so blessed to have had time to spend with them and be filled with their love.
We talked a lot about operating from a place of overflow and I think I finally understand what that means. They loved us so much, so much that it hurt. But now I can’t imagine honoring their love in any better way than going out and loving God’s people the same way they loved me. Without fear, with vulnerability, even when we know our time will soon come to an end. Loving so wholly, so completely.
So this is my promise to the next ten months: I will love you and invest in you. I will grow deep roots in your soil. I will grow with you and hurt with you. I will love you deeper that I thought I could ever love. I will pour into you. I will show you the love that God has shown me through the amazing people He has blessed my life with.
John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
