A few months ago, Jay and I decided we wanted to be better stewards of entertainment by watching less mindless TV and movies. We’ve been reading books, watching movies, researching history and keeping up with current events of the 11 countries we’ll be pouring LOVE into next year. We randomly stumbled across a book about Uganda in a little bookstore on a weekend trip through the Kenai Peninsula. I’d heard of it from some squadmates and I had to have it. Normally, I’m a buy-paperbacks-from-Amazon-for-as-cheap-as-possible kindof girl…not a buy-hardbacks-at-small-bookstores-with-big-prices kindof reader. For some reason, I felt compelled to buy this $25 book at that moment and it made our weekend trip incredible! We began reading it aloud to each other in the car for the rest of our trip. God miraculously protected us from motion sickness and we read the entire book in 2 days! One night, we stayed up late alternating who read each chapter and begging “just one more” chapter over and over and over again. We couldn’t put it down!
The book was “Kisses from Katie” by Katie Davis. Katie moved to Uganda for a one year commitment as a teacher immediately following her high school graduation in 2007. 5 years later, she is still there serving as the founder of Amazima Ministries, mother to THIRTEEN beautiful, adopted daughters and feeding hundreds thousands more everyday. She did it all by simply answering the call to “love the one in front of her.”
A few days later, we rented and watched a movie with the same basic message. While it had quite a bit of language and violence and I would NOT recommend it for families, “Machine Gun Preacher” is based on the true story of Sam Childers. God miraculously transforms him from a drug-dealing, drug-using gang member to a preacher who begins an orphanage in South Sudan after a mission trip to Uganda. While Sam is sometimes misguided and I don’t agree with everything he does, it was still all about loving the one in front of you and helping whomever you can.
I’ve always coupled Hebrews 13:2, “Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done so have entertained angels without realizing it!”
What if we all lived this way? What if we all believed that everyone we came in contact with was deserving of our love? What if we treated others like Jesus or heavenly beings? What if we truly LIVED the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 25 instead of constantly living for ourselves?
Our pastor touched on this same concept Sunday. A mentor taught him to love the people God brought to him. Can it really be that simple??
I’ve seen, read and heard so many examples of this lately from Katie Davis to Mother Teresa and I’m realizing that YES!, it can be, it just might be, it IS that simple! We are such masters of complicating things with over-thinking, compromising, making excuses and we just need to STOP (in the name of love, before you break His heart,) get over ourselves and just share the relentless, redeeming LOVE of our Savior.
Loving others looks so differently from person to person, so find your unique way. You may not be called to leave the country, start a non-profit organization or adopt ten children, but God has a purpose for you to LOVE His children where you are starting right now, so DO IT.
