For the last month I got to see love in an up-close and personal way. Traveling across the Far-East I got a glimpse of several examples of real love. It changed me. It challenged me.
What I saw wasn’t the kind of love that you can read about in a novel or watch on TV. It isn’t like the kind of love that you read about on Facebook posts every day, either. It is a love that moves far beyond feeling. It is a love that moves and stretches and sacrifices and gives. It wasn’t the kind of love that gets a lot of admiration or the applause of men. It is more of a quiet commitment. It is the living out the essence and meaning of true love minute by minute, day by day.
In Beijing, China, I saw love in Dar. Dar gave up the dream of marriage and a family and moved into China all on her own, all by herself, to teach in a University. And to share God’s love. That is the passion of her life. She has given up all her dreams to fulfill God’s higher calling.
I saw love in TJ and J while I was in China, too. Without fanfare or applause they teach school during the day. At night their home is filled with people seeking to know God. That kind of love happens in their home almost every night of the week.
I hesitate to use TJ, J and Dar’s real names because of the political environment in China. Love has even moved them to sacrifice their identities.
I saw love in Brandon and Brittany Lingle, Siring and Jessie Yaebeang. They live in Bangkok, Thailand. Two talented, intelligent couples who could really be “making it” in the United States. But they have made the choice to move a half a world away from family and friends to love on people who have never heard the name of Jesus.
I saw love in John and Louela Paige. Love moved this couple to give their lives to a tribe of people north of Ban Lung, Cambodia on the Ho Chi Min trail. Their home is now a bamboo hut. John told me that he really wants the people there to know that they really mean it when they say, “I love you.” The only way to do that was to show them how much they loved them. They had to move into the neighborhood. Just like Jesus did, 200o years ago.
I saw love in what all these people do, not what they say. You see, what you do is what you really believe. Everything else is just religious talk. Real love always does.
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13
I was challenged by these people. I need to let my love be more than words. There are a lot of people living in the US that need to know Jesus loves them. My life, what I am willing to do, what I am willing to give, how far I am willing to go, will always love louder than my talk.
Love always does.