On love, and “loving on.”

If you’re a Christian, you’re probably familiar with the phrase, “loving on,” as in, “We’re going to volunteer at the local homeless shelter, serve meals and love on the people.”  If you’re not, meet the most common phrase in a Christian’s lexicon.  I hope I’m not the only person who feels this way, but that phrase really bothers me.  Is there any reason why we add that extra preposition?

 

                                   My dog, Molly.  Adorable.

“Loving on” someone makes me think of the relationship between you and your pet.  You feed it, you pet it, you play with it, but it’s not a human being.  There’s no interpersonal connection.  You can’t relate to the struggles of your cocker spaniel or your orange tabby.  Why do we create that separation when we talk about interacting with people?  People are not pets.  As Racers, we’re not recruited to drop into a developing community, feed them, give them water, pat them on the head, and leave.  I think my teammate Joel said it best when he described a recent trip to Nicaragua in a message to the rest of my team: “…people are genuinely trying to help these people, not just put up a
building with a cross on it.”

 

Take out the prepositions.  Let’s love people.  It’s simpler that way.

 

In financial news (oh yes), I still need $235 in my account by next Monday, and I’m in need of $7,535 total to meet my $15,300 goal.  I need to have that amount pledged by the time I leave.   Right now, I have $100 a month in pledges.  I need ten times that amount.  Here’s a few ways to break a similar amount down over the next seven months (all funds must be in my account by February 1):

 

100 supporters x $11 a month = $1100 a month x 7 months = $7700

50 supporters x $22 a month = $1100 a month x 7 months =  $7700

25 supporters x $44 a month =  $1100 a month x 7 months = $7700

10 supporters x $110 a month = $1100 a month x 7 months = $7700

1 supporter x $1100 a month = $1100 a month x 7 months = $7700

 

Or a simple one-time donation of $7535.  You might laugh, but there are two members of the August team who received $10,000 each from a single source.  I’m not discounting it as a possibility.