It’s been almost three months since this journey started. It’s there’s been a lot of moving parts. I’ve been wanting to blog more often so I can share this experience with you all. To share with you all that I have been learning and seeing. So much goes on, so rapidly. Maybe it’s just the way my mind works, but it’s difficult for me to thoroughly reflect and coherently and authentically tell you all that I have been experiencing. Honestly, a lot of it, has humbled, brought joy, revealed, and brought to light a lot of things that I believe are so useful in our day to day walk, our relationships with people near and dear to us or even a stranger. It all just comes back to love.
Here’s a pretty convicting lesson that I’ve learned so far.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” – 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
I’m sure many of you are familiar with this verse. To me, it gives a great basis for what love should look like. Often times, the word “love” becomes so overused and we forget the gravity of it. A lot of the time for me, things get so familiar and they eventually loose their value, but that’s just not true. It’s my own fault for lacking the discipline to actually meditate or even better, to practice the things that I believe. For example.
“Love is not self-seeking.” This hits me pretty hard. To be honest, often times I find myself idle and doing things mostly for myself and to gratify myself. I’m more concerned about the joy that I can give myself, rather than the joy that the lord can give me through obeying Him, which is to authentically love people as He has loved us.
As an example, the work that we are asked to do sometimes are not what I “expect” a mission trip would or should look like. For me, if I’m not doing physical labor, giving food or water away, or something tangible, then I’m not really making a difference. If I don’t have anything to show for it (or show other people) then It’s not really work. Because in my heart, I want other people to see that I’m “making a difference” so that I can feel good about myself.
See I was more concerned about doing the work only if it glorified me. me. me. If it’s not something great or whatever I perceive what great looks like, I don’t feel as if anything is accomplished. My heart was in such a wrong place that I forgot why I was here in the first place. To glorify His name.
But… through all of this… the lord continues to remind me the reason why I choose to follow Him.
The love poured out on the cross at Calvary.
The love that is patient, kind, that does not envy, that does not boast, that is not proud… that is not self-seeking, that is not easily angered, that keeps no record of wrongs. Love that does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth, love that always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
It’s because of this unconditional love, that I have an example. Which I am to follow as I walk out the new life he gives me. To love others as He loves me. Whether it be as a team leader, a world racer, a guest in a home, a Friend, as a son, or as a brother. Only glorifying His great name in whatever situation He puts me in, whatever work that he lays on my hands. I am to glorify Him as the son of the most High!
“He must become greater; I must become less” – John 3:30
