Assignment: Be Love
Today, it’s no secret that our society demands we must find work to survive. We gotta have a job to pay bills, to provide, to eat. If you choose to not work, options and opportunity quickly dry up. Products and services we need to survive or even have fun are no longer obtainable.
Recently, I sat with a friend at a local cafe. He’s a young 20-something guy with a new fiancé, who happens to be pregnant. Recently, the both of them lost their jobs, due to no fault of their own. Opportunity dried up and they were let go, as is the case all over the country these days. The couple survived for a short time on cash reserves. Eventually, reserves dried up and they were desperate for help.
Sadly, friends and family refused to come to their aid because they were pregnant out of wedlock.
It wasn’t long before they lost their cozy, middle-class life and were literally homeless and penniless, living in someone’s garage. Although I have never realized poverty or homelessness to this extreme myself, by hearing his story, as I reached the bottom of my latte far too quickly, I began to get a sense of the pressure and intense emotional strain of their situation.
I found myself waist deep in a cocktail of emotions just piling up inside and giving me a bit of moral heartburn. Internally, I felt disappointment for their choices before marriage as well as concern for the welfare of a new family in their situation. I felt anger. I’m not sure at whom, but I felt anger that our country has found itself in a position that has put countless decent, hard-working Americans, just like my friend, on the streets. As a nation, our decisions, or lack thereof have made it difficult if not impossible for the individual family unit to survive in the face of adversity.
With all these feelings and thoughts breeding sadness in my heart, layered on top of it all we’re feelings of compassion, of hope and above all there was a part of me that easily overrode my human defaults with a strong sense of compassion. There was a glimpse of hope in all of their struggles. My friend and his fiance could not see it at the time and I couldn’t just open my mouth and say “Hey, there’s hope here.. I can feel it!”
Like bragging about the beauty of your view on a hill to a prisoner in a pit, it would never sink in or translate and most likely would just frustrate them further.
At that point it hit me. It was my job. God had placed this young couple, full of promise and potential as a family, in my path to speak into their lives and provide little infusions of hope, love, compassion and most of all, speak piece into their storm.
I realized at that moment, sitting there, in the over-air conditioned cafe, looking at these two young adults right into their burdened and broken eyes that I was the only person on the planet in a position to do this job. I was the one person they chose to open up to and listen to. Wow, what a weight of responsibility!
This was my assignment. It was my job.
Over a few weeks I made a point to reach out to this couple and spend time with them. Mostly speaking one on one with the soon-to-be daddy, encouraging him as the head of the house. As time went on, it was great to see them begin to voluntarily reach out to me, asking me to dinner, coffee and just a chance to open up and converse without threat or concern of judgement or religiosity attacking them. They didn’t even realize it at the time, but they, more than anything, wanted to feel love.
It was my job to BE LOVE. And love being an action, I needed to act.
As believers, our faith and salvation are often taken for granted or not really thought out other than our Sunday morning service. We can get so wrapped up in our own circle that we forget one of Christ’s primary challenges to us: to go out and spread His love and message to the world.
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 NKJV)
This is such a stress relieving scripture to me because it defines our primary responsibility, our “job”, as believers. Jesus says, look, if you believe in me, you believe in my work and my words, be a witness of this to everyone.
A witness is someone who has experienced something great outside himself. Something big. A witness is someone with the burden of sharing intimate details of what he has experienced with others, especially those who ask.
It’s kind of a huge responsibility isn’t it? Yeah, but it’s also realistically possible to be a part of everyday life. Yes, It’s a big deal to share the love of Christ, but it shouldn’t be a big deal to make that love and relationship evident to those around us.
Although there are those who have been specifically called to remote ends of the world to reach the lost, not all of us are. Not all of us can or should travel to unknown lands. I don’t believe God expects that. I do however believe God clearly expects us to be a clear and evident witness to everyone around us. This is our job, and in effect, our daily responsibility to make the love, peace, hope and beauty of our relationship with Christ evident in our daily life.
As with my friend, it’s our job to be the living example that shows evidence of God’s work, words and passion for His people.
Being a believer isn’t a state of being, it’s an action-based lifestyle. Christ himself was never content just sitting, he was always on the move. Maybe he wasn’t always preaching and teaching, but always being love in many ways; mostly by just being with people and building relationships one-on-one.
I love this concept. Jesus made being a witness as simple as being a living example. Heck yeah I can do that! This is the easiest and most beneficial job we can have… to BE LOVE in everything we do. Talk about a great foundation to base future accomplishments and achievements in your life. Of course, being the example is only a start, but its a great start to a life of changing those around you by being a living example.
Be Love.
-Jeremiah St. James
