World Missions: Learning to Love
We were asked to share with you why we’re going on this world missions adventure called the World Race. I’m going around the world in 11 months, because…
I believe in love.
Call me a romantic, call me an idealist, call me naive…but it’s the truth. I believe in the love of God and His Son Jesus Christ, because it is a love has changed my heart forever. I’m indelibly marked with the love that put Jesus on the cross. Like skin tattooed, my heart is stained with the love of Christ. I cannot get rid of it–nor do I want to–and nothing I will ever do can separate me from it. The love of Jesus washes over me when I seek His face, and I am drowned in the glory of it…but rather than earthly drowning, which is a nightmare, this drowning is a welcome overpowering of my life; this love is eclipsing my humanity and my sinfulness, creating a new Spirit where once the death of sin reigned, and calling me ever deeper into the presence of my Creator.
Oh yes, I believe in love. And because I’ve seen the power of the love of Jesus in my own life, I believe Jesus just wants me to show others that love.
But do I really know how to love?
As I look back on my life, I realize that very rarely do I make enemies. I’m the kind of gal who hates confrontation and wants everyone to like her–even in the past when I’ve been confronted about my faith or something else, I’ve shied away, quieted down and just hoped the moment would pass and things would return to happy, smiling Normal. I’ve gone through life not making enemies, and really never getting to know or love anyone very different from myself, because it’s easy to love your friends. And oh how I love my friends.
But the Bible says this in Deuteronomy 10:
“17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. 19 And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.”
(remember, ‘aliens’ just means anyone different from yourself). …No, there haven’t been many “alien” loves in Katie’s life to date!
At training camp, Andrew Shearman put it this way: we are called to be “God with skin on.” The verse in Deuteronomy says that GOD defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. As a daughter of God, I have been called to show God’s love to the “aliens” (people different from me)–I have been called to be God with skin on, to be His arms to hug the orphan, His words to comfort the widow, His voice for the voiceless.
So why am I going on the World Race? I want God to teach me how to love those who are different from me. I want to see the poorest of the poor not with my distorted human vision but with the eyes of the Lord….to see them and love them for who they are created to be in Christ.
I want to learn how to love with my Father God’s heart…I want to be God with skin on.
