If you know me well at all, you will think this is an incredibly surprising title and you’re probably a little shocked that this is something I want to talk about and share with the world through this blog. And you’d be right, and I get the same way at first. I’m not a super affectionate person, I don’t like being sappy, and love is not something I talk about or say all the time. It’s actually a challenge for me most of the time. However, love is something that has come up over and over again in the past month or so through training camp, life in Nicaragua, and my daily Bible reading.
The word love appears in the Bible 281 times (according to the BLB app). And we can see a theme of love throughout the entire book. We read that the Israelites/any believer will stray from God, he punishes them, they repent, and they fall back into the loving arms of God. Once back in the Lord’s arms, we experience the amazing, unfailing, never-ending love of our Heavenly Father. While we can see the love of God in the entire book, there are some specific chapters and verses that highlight the love of God. One chapter (I’m sure most know) is 1 Corinthians 13 where the attributes of love are spelled out with absolutely clarity. I want to highlight verse 1 which says, “if I speak with the tongue of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong of a clanging cymbal”. This verse is telling us that if we are speaking of God and the things of God, but without love, or in an unloving way, those words are useless. It’s okay to correct someone or point out sin, however we are instructed to do so in love. If we don’t, we are as a clanging cymbal. And no one wants to hear that.
I have also read and been taught on Matthew 22:34-39 which says, ”but when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all you hear, and with all you soul, and with all you mind’ ‘This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, you shall life you neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.’” Jesus clearly spells out our two greatest commandments. The two things we should be doing above all else and both involve love. Love the Lord our God, and loving our neighbor as ourself. And as I have continued to read the Bible, I have seen the Jesus considers every human to be His neighbor. We are called to walk like Jesus and to act like Him. In order to do that we have to be willing to love every single person we meet.
In the past few weeks of ministry in Nicaragua I have been learning to walk this out. I am living with 16 other people and spending 24 hours a day seven days a week and have been for the last 36 days. We all get on each other’s nerves and it can be hard to be slow to speak and slow to anger. To bite my tongue, to listen, and speak the truth in love to them.
I am also learning from the people I am serving how to truly love the Lord. One of our ministries is “the dump”. We go to the town dump every Wednesday morning where people scavenge the mountains of trash searching for things to resell and food to eat, some of them even live at the dump. We share a message with them and then serve them a meal which could be one of only two meals they eat that week. It is truly heartbreaking. But at the same time, we see their beautiful smiles, excitement to hear the word of God, and their thankfulness to have the Lord on their side. We also spend every Friday at a church helping with a children’s Bible ministry. The children gather for games, songs, a Bible lesson, and a meal afterwards. Similar to the dump, it is heartbreaking to hear some of their stories and to know how/where they live. But watching them learn about God and their excitement just to meet us and play with us and listen to what we have to say (sometimes more than others 😉 anyone who works with kids knows what I mean). We also have heard some amazing stories of how God has worked in the lives of the people working at the church. The children’s pastor shared his testimony with us just yesterday. It was such a powerful story of how God can take someone who was in a gang, with no future other than death and no hope and suddenly reveal himself to them and do a 180 in their lives. I am so thankful that he was willing to share his story with us to encourage us and just show a little part of the heart and love of the Lord.
I have seen so much love and passion for the Lord in the past few weeks of ministry in a country with so little and so many people who have nothing to their name but the Lord. And yet I have never felt so loved. So appreciated. And learned so much about the heart and love of Christ. I am trying to be more like the people of Nicaragua in their true faith and reliance on God. They are a true example of what Jesus talked about in Matthew 22:37-39. I hope to bring a little slice of that back to the states with me. I want to be an example of someone who shows the heart and love of Christ with others. Through small actions like buying tea for a sick friend, praying over someone who is struggling, or just giving a hug (even though I don’t like them) and taking the time to listen when I’m tired and don’t want to. Those are the things I have seen my friends do, and what Jesus would do. If you made it to this point, I hope you will also take the time to show a little more love to everyone you encounter, and hopefully you can help keep me in line making sure I do the same.
