All you need is love…
That is
a great quote in a great song from the Beatles. It is something that I am
coming into a great understanding of over the last few months. Our race route
had taken us from China over to Thailand, and now into Malaysia. As I sit here
in Little India, Penang, Malaysia, I reminisce over the last couple of months.
On our
way out of China Blake and I had to say goodbye to our girls so as we could
head for a month of “manistry” in Thailand. In one of our last meetings with
the girls, I was given the movie “Furious Love”. I believe it was Sarah who
told me that we need to watch it, as it is an amazing look into Gods heart.
About 2 weeks into Thailand I did. I watched a movie that broke my heart as I
looked back upon my year.
You
see, the movie is about Gods heart, one that is all about love. Love is the
reason He created us. Love is the reason He gave us a promise. Love is the
reason that He spared Adam and Eve after they ate from that tree. Love is the
reason He died, and love is the reason He rose 3 days later.
There
is a quote in that movie that I don’t say word for word, but it goes something
along the lines of this… (Actually first off, to set the scene, the director of
the movie, Darren Wilson, along with his friend Pastor Jason Westerfield, whom
has an amazing gift of healing and had done healings in Darren’s other film, “Finger
of God” are headed for Salem Massachusetts for a witchcraft festival.)
Darren states,
“You see, I was going there to pick a fight. I wanted to show that my God was
bigger.”
He was going to this witchcraft festival to see God do
miracles, and show that our God is bigger, that our god has more power… It sounds great to me. Let’s prove once and
for all that our God is mighty to save. He is a healer, a redeemer, a powerful
god worthy of our praise. Only one problem…
NOTHING HAPPENED! Nothing, no healings, no divine power fell
from the sky that even showed that our god was alive! Nothing was happening.
So, the Jason and Darren take a step back and begin to talk and pray.
Darren
then proceeds to say, “That’s when I realized just what God wanted to do. He didn’t
want to pick a fight. He wanted to love”
“He
Wanted To LOVE”
This is Gods desire for us, that we love Him, and love one
another. So often we forget. So often we step into the mission field preaching
love, but picking fights. Love becomes the byproduct of making Christians.
“Here, say this sinners prayer, then come meet me for coffee
in a few days and let me love you as God begins to love on you,” has become a
totally unacceptable statement in my vocabulary.
Peng, the woman we worked with in
Thailand for manistry coached a girl’s volleyball team. The girls were aged
10-16. We were so busy working in tapioca fields and moving goats around thatwe
didn’t get much opportunity to spend with the team, but for some reason my
heart went out to them.
I asked
Peng if I could take the team out for some snacks and just talk with them.
Maybe share my testimony, give them a gospel presentation, maybe lead them
through a prayer, you know, the normal stuff we missionary types do. She
agreed, but asked that I only share my testimony…
A few
days later after Sawng Kraan, a huge week long water fight/Thai New Year
celebration, the guys and I found ourselves in a park with the volleyball girls
and Peng for a picnic. There couldn’t have been a better moment. We had just
thrown water at moving vehicles, people on roadsides, each other, and now we
sit in the cool of the shade hiding from the warm tropic sun.
I asked
Peng if I could go for it. She asked me if I could just talk with them, not to
them. I asked what exactly she wanted me to say as it was obvious that her goal
and my goal were entirely different things.
She said, “You can share your
testimony, but please, please don’t share the gospel with them. Don’t ask them
to pray today, don’t try to convert them. (They are Buddhists) She says, “I
have spent two years with these girls. Getting to know them and loving them,
and one day in another year or so, I hope to share the gospel with them. They
know my beliefs, they know why I moved to this town, and one day I hope they
will know Christ.”
What she actually said at the
bottom of those bold words was just what Darren was saying.
LOVE.
Can we stop going out in hopes of
making Christians? Can we stop having people say a “sinners prayer” which isn’t
in the Bible? Can we stop everything and start loving? Love people whether they
choose Christ or not, and pray that somewhere in the midst of the broken love
that we can give as humans they will find Gods perfect love? Can we love with
everything that we have inside of us and truly walk in the light of Christ? I
don’t care if I ever here another person pray a sinners prayer, so long as they
come to a place where they recognize that God is God, they are loved, and they
choose to not say some script, but walk in the light of love.
