Love does.
A simple phrase yet one packing a big punch.
My friend Rachel introduced the book, “Love Does” by Bob Goff, to me in the midst of my application process to The World Race. The book challenges us to consider love as a verb. It’s filled with stories of adventure, finding “whimsy” in the everyday, setting aside agendas to be there for someone else, and simply looking a heck of a lot more like Jesus in the way we love up on others.
Rachel and I had so many conversations about this book and its impact on our lives. We shared constant encouragement, holding each other accountable for showing love, as well as keeping each other strong as we pursued a life that went against the grain of the American dream in order to follow the calling we felt deep in our hearts.
There is a quote that I found this past fall before I had even applied to the World Race and it goes like this,
“…I’ve always wondered if, when we want to do something that we know is right and good, God places that desire deep in our hearts because He wants it for us and it honors Him.”
It’s a quote I have read a hundred times for encouragement. One night, Rach and I were having one of our “talks” via text in between me continuing to put a dent in “Love Does”. I shared the above quote with her and continued reading my book. Then I got a pit in my stomach, the good kind. I read and re-read the lines over and over again. The very quote I found months earlier was staring back at me but not from my recently sent text to Rach but rather in the pages of “Love Does”.
The quote I have clung to through my World Race process is from “Love Does”, the book only recently shared with me but one that quickly was becoming the theme/mission of my Race. God works like that. He has a divine plan. He is alive, present, and eager to SHOW us He is there. Rachel told me so in response to the “coincidence”, as she had not even realized it was from her book.
Fast forward a couple weeks from that conversation and I am at the hospital praying over Rachel in the ICU.
Rach was recently in a car accident and remains in the ICU in stable, yet critical condition. In typical Rachel fashion, she continues to change the world even from her hospital bed. People’s faiths are being renewed as we continue to see the power of prayer at work. Glory is being given to God as we praise Him for all the lives being touched by this and we cannot wait to tell Rach all about it when she wakes up.
It’s not uncommon for people who experience a tragedy, first or second hand, to say things like, “This made me realize what’s important in life” or “It made me start to live my life to fullest”. Well, I’ll tell you, Rachel already has an incredible handle on those concepts even at the young age of 19. Rachel looks like Jesus to those around her. To her friends, family, and teammates. To the homeless man she took to dinner on a recent trip. To the 4 children from around the world she sponsors on her Toys-R-Us paycheck…
It’s too fitting not to add that just over a week before Rachel’s accident, she contacted me excitedly sharing she just had her World Race Gap Year interview while on a ski lift in the Rockies on a last-minute trip to Colorado. Adventure. Passion. Service. Rachel.
I challenge each of us to not simply tell the world of His love, but to show it. Love through your actions. Join us in re-defining the word because the world needs more action and less intentions. More examples, less opinions. More broken comfort zones, less conformity. More Jesus, less “me”.
Let’s do this,
Lisa
SPECIAL REQUEST
Please pray for Rachel, her family, and her medical team. God is working miracles physically and spiritually; we are thankful for the opportunity to bring Him glory by being joyful amidst this trial. We are asking for big, bold prayers and to pray without ceasing.
