But then He showed me a picture that was also part of Victor's story a few years ago. I saw a red carpet and it led to a very large stage. On that stage stood my family and Jesus holding a baby. Children started coming in from all sides to join us until there was quite a crowd on the stage. He said, "These are my children, Cindy. These are your children. You will show them my love. You will bring them to me. You will rescue them. It will be hard. You will get dirty. Your heart will hurt. I will be here. Have faith. Move mountains. Break chains. Be faithful. You need only be still. I will bring them to you. You will know. Trust me.... This wasn't just about loving "the one", this was also to prepare you..."
I love the stories of Corrie ten Boom. Her family chose to do the hard and hid Jews during the Holocaust. They knew the risk. But they also knew it mattered to each one. And they were caught. Corrie lost her dear sister and her father in the concentration camps. But after her release she was still able to say it was the right thing to do and to do the hard work of forgiving.
Jim Elliot is another person I like to read about. God gave him a heart for a remote tribe in Ecuador. He and his family knew the risk and Jim, along with four other missionaries, were killed while trying to connect with the people. Later, several of the widows returned to live with the very same people who had killed their husbands.
And Mother Teresa. What beautiful stories there are of how she loved the outcast. She knew the risks of disease and dirt and poverty yet she chose to live among them every single day. So humble, so wise, so full of love, and so open to giving that love away.
Social media was not even an option for each of these people. But even if it had been, I'm pretty certain Corrie ten Boom wouldn't just have been writing thought-provoking Facebook posts telling others to join the movement to hide Jews from the Nazis while she and her family continued to move about freely in the community and earning a living in her father's shop. And I don't think Jim Elliot would simply have been sharing blog posts about how others should relate to violent people groups while he and his family were safe and secure living the American dream. Mother Teresa? I don't think she would have been fulfilled by just re-posting challenging memes about loving the poor, the sick, and the vulnerable while spending her days attending sermons and lectures in large cathedrals or churches. Instead, each of these individuals would have been doing. And not because they were trying to make a point or turn the attention to themselves but simply because they knew that it was what every Christian is called to do. And if they weren't on the ground serving "the one", they were on their knees with their Lord, intimately communing, finding refreshment for the needs of the day, getting their marching orders, asking for and receiving wisdom. If they had just talked and not been willing to sacrifice comfort, finances, and safety for "the one", how many lives would never have known the love of another, the that comes from the love of a Savior? I guess their lives still could have influenced others, but it wouldn't have been a model of love and service, it would have simply been a model of talk. And we certainly don't need any more Christians who are all talk and no love.
Jesus was once asked to clarify which commandment was the greatest. He answered with not one, but two commandments and I think there's a reason they were paired together; it is impossible to do one without the other:
Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the Law?
Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it:
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Matthew 22: 36 - 40
No, they wouldn't just have been writing about loving and serving, they would have been doing.
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