“I Love You With the Love of Christ”
I don’t like to need people.
There, I said it.
It’s true, I cannot deny it.
Yet, I love to love, but it is difficult for me to accept love from others. I don’t feel worthy, deserving, or simply ‘good enough’ most of the time.
But things are changing.
I am changing.
Of course, I have God to thank for this. I also have family and friends throughout the world to thank, as well, and as of this month—in Kenya. I have written about it before, but the ways that our church family has taken care of us this month has made a significant impact on me and the way that I accept and receive love. In the simplest ways, from joyfully volunteering to help me cut carrots to chaperoning us on visits to the grocery store to taking days off of work to spend time with us and keep us safe, the men and women we have been blessed to know, love, and be loved by have made me love and value each day we have had here in Kisumu.
At the onset of our ministry here, one of our pastors and I talked about loving others ‘with the love of Christ.’ Our church family demonstrated this from the very beginning and through their example, I can honestly say that I love them in the same way. As many of you know, for me, I only use the ‘L’ word when I mean it, and at times, sparingly. So to write that I love ‘with the love of Christ’ not only my church family, but the thousands of high school students I have been privileged to preach to and the hundreds of elementary and junior high school students I have enjoyed playing and singing with, is not only a ‘change in me, but a God-given change.
Things are changing, once again.
