L.O.V.E

In today's society the word love is used in multiple ways.
I love ice cream.
I love sleeping.
I love playing basketball.
I love the friends I have.
I love going to Bethel.
I love my family.
I love God.
We use it to describe something we are doing at the moment. We use it to describe how we feel about other people. We just use it a lot. But have you ever really thought about the true meaning of love. According to Dictionary.com the word love means "a profoundly tender, passinate affections for another person." I don't think that quite says it all. Because in the way I use the word love, its not just towards another person; its towards just other things in general, from food to sports, not just people. I am not saying its a bad thing to use the word love in a way to describe objects, just recently I have been challenged by the true idea of love. The love that Christ talks about. The love that matters the most.
About a month ago the basketball team at Bethel, including myself, traveled to the Dominican Republic for a missions trip. We were there for a week where we helped out in a sugar cane village, two orphanages, and played a large number of games. It was an experience I will never ever forget because the Dominican people impacted my life in more ways than one. I may not have understood most of what they were saying, but their actions spoke louder than words could ever. I have never felt God so evident in one place more than I did while I was on this trip. Every time I think about it or just glimpse at pictures from the trip, I long to be back there with those kids and the people there. It's just hard to put into words how grateful I am that I could take part of this trip and I thank God every day He allowed me to go on this trip. I wanted to say all that just to mention and talk about now the biggest thing God taught me while I was there. As you can probably already guess, He taught me so much about His love.
Before this trip I knew God's love for me was bigger than anyone else's love towards me. But not until after I got back did I really grasp the idea of it.
On the second day we were there we traveled to a Sugar Cane Village. The best way to describe it is that it is a small community within the town that we were in. Many families lived there in small houses and they also had a church that was relativly small also. As soon as we pulled into the village and the bus driver honked his horn, several different kids of all ages came flooding out of the houses. They just stood at the door of the bus waiting for all of us to get off. I myself didn't know any Spanish at the time, so I wasn't really sure what to say to them. So I did what I thought was best; I smiled. After that little encounter, kids just flocked to your hands. One little girl instantly grabbed onto mine and had me follow all the other kids into this big open field, which they used as a place to play at. Sometimes I would want so bad to communicate with them, but I knew how to say nothing so it was difficult. I would catch myself many times speaking English to them and then instantly realizing they had no clue what I was saying. If they tried to speak to me, I would have to have one of my teammates translate or one of the translators that was there interpert. It was one of the hardest things for me because my heart has a big spot for children and not to be able to communicate to them through words was unbearable. But when I got home and reflected on that idea, something hit me. God's love shown through those kids. No many of them may not have known Him as there Savior, but the idea of God's love was shown through those kids to me. Even though those kids couldn't communicate to us yet still wanted to play with us and didn't want us to leave, they still loved us. That is just like God's love sometimes. Even though we may not have a clear picture of what He is trying to say to us, He still loves us. Even when I refuse to listen to Him or don't even realize He is talking straight to me, He still loves me more than life. I could break down crying right now just thinking of that one idea of how much One Man loves me. It's just amazing.
Leaving that place was hard, but it gets much worse the following days.
The next day we went to an orphanage. This orphanage was filled with many children who were mostly girls, but still had a few boys placed in it too. For some reason I knew I was going to struggle with going here because I knew these kids didn't have a family to run to after we left that loved them as much as my family loves me. They had each other and the people their ages and the adults in charge, but that can not even compare to the love that my family gives me each time I come home. We arrived at a big brick wall with no windows and just simply a door to get in and out of; those kids had no way to see out. As soon as we walked in the same thing happened; the kids instantly flocked to our open hands and smiling faces. A girl with a frayed jump rope grabbed on to my hand. As I think about it now, I can still feel her tight grip on my hand; the grip that said she wasn't going to let me go all day long. And that exact thing happened; she never left my side the entire time. We jumped rope, we danced (well she attempted to teach me how to dance), we played with a beach ball, we took pictures and so much more. I had so much fun! I didn't want to leave. But then those awful words came out of our translators mouth; it was time to say good-bye. One it was hard for me to say good-bye because I wasn't really sure how to communicate to her that I had to leave and two I just simply didn't want to leave her. Eventually I just told her Adiós and she understood that it was time for me to go. She instantly jumped up from combing my hair and gave me a huge hug. If you know me, well I'm a cryer and at that point in time, the tears instantly starting flowing. Then I told her I had fun today and she jumped down off the ledge she was on, had me bend down and gave me another hug and kiss on the cheek. I lost it. I had to walk away from her just so she wouldn't see my tears. It was the worst goodbye I had to give of my life. And to think those kids go through that multiple times. That makes me want to cry again. As we were driving away waving at all the kids and hearing sniffle after sniffle in the bus, something hit me. It has to do with God's love again. How can a girl with only a frayed jump rope and who is probably crammed into a room with a bunch of other girls love me, a girl she will never see again? That girl who was probably 7 or 8 loved when she had nothing in our eyes. Isn't that how I should love though? That even if God blesses me with nothing or less than other people, I should still love Him back. He gave it all up for me, how hard can it be to just love Him for who He is, not for what He provides me with. He is so much bigger than any possesion we will ever account for. I learned that day that no matter what I have or what other people don't have I still need to love them for who they are and love God for who He is. Let's just say that girl will always have a place in my heart.
From every day we had left in the DR I constantly thanked God for the love He gives me and how He showed it to me so evidently through that girl. I was so thankful for that oppurtunity.
Before I left for the DR my mom asked a few people that have been encourgaments to me over the summer to write letters for me to read when I arrvied. If you know my mom, you know this is something she loves to do. She is probably the best letter writer out there and to have her ask people to write letters to me is so her. I was so suprised when I arrived and discovered what was in an envelope. It pretty much made my day. In one of them from my friends in my small group was a stack of index cards each with a number on them. They each had a verse on them that I was to read everyday, one for each day I was there. It was so awesome and each day the index card encouraged me and I challenged myself to apply the verse to whatever situation I was in that day. If I had time I would explain them all to you, but I'll just tell you about the one that had to biggest impact on me. It's from John 15:12,13. It says, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends." He commanded us right there to love one another. If we don't love, we are breaking His commandment. Its just as signifancant as if we were to murder because that is also one of his commandments. He wants us to love. But more importantly He wants us to love like He loved us. That means laying down our life for someone, as the second part says. He loved us more than llife which means we need to love others more than life. This is one of my biggest struggles; loving someone who has hurt me or doesn't act like they love me. But there's a reason those people are in my life. God wants me to love them no matter what. No matter what. That's the hardest part; loving someone no matter what. I had to love the children of the DR even when they had nothing and even when I knew I would never see them again. But if you think about it we are all children of God and deserved to be loved by and to love. Yes, there are going to be days when someone bothers me or does something to hurt me, but I still have to love them. People make God mad all the time, yet He still loves them. Somedays I may not love someone because I find out a flaw in them. But each of us have flaws and God still loves us unconditionally. How hard is it to really love someone unconditionally? Well really its not. We just gotta love.
One of my all time favorite worship songs is "How He Loves Us." by the David Crowder Band. Everytime I listen to it, it just hits the spot. The whole song is so powerful and really puts it into perspective how much God really loves us. At the very beginning of the song it says, "And I realize just how beautiful You are and how great Your affections are for me." Thats excatly what happened to me in the DR. I realized how beautiful God was not just in His creation but also in the people He created and then saw how great His affection or love is for me. It just blows my mind every time. After that the chorus goes on just to say, "Oh how He loves us, how He loves us so" a few times in a row. Those simple words just hit me every time for how true they are. He just straight up loves us. We don't need a bunch of words to say it other than He love us. Man oh man, I'm in awe right now. Another favorite part of mine from the song is when it says, "I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way He loves us." This part gets me every time. I can't think about what I did wrong or what I don't have, I just have to know He loves me no matter what. Its like the kids in the DR didn't care about what they didn't have, they just loved to love. Thats how I need to love. I just need to love.
But what about you? How do you love? Do you love like the kids in the DR? Do you love like God loves you? Or do you love who you want to love? And don't worry, I'm asking myself the same questions.
Every since I have gotten back from the DR I have tired to love more than I ever have. Somedays its super hard, but if its a commandment from God I have to do it. There's no question about it. I even wear a bracelet on my wrist the simply says love to remind myself that wherever I am at whether its class, practice, a game, my room, at home or at work, I must love with all my heart.
In Deuteronomy 6:5 it says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." Not only do I believe that is how we should love God, but also how we should love others; with everything we have we should love.
So at the beginning I gave you the definition of love from the dictionary point of view. I believed it didn't quite say it all because I have found a much better definition in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Here we go. It says,
"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends."
Yeah, umm I don't think I need to say anything. It says it all. I'm speechless right now.
So love. Just love. Right now. Tomorrow. This week. This month. This year. This life time. Just love. I want to. Do you?
I am so thankful for the trip to the Dominincan and my dream every day is that I will get to go back and show those kids more love because they are the ones who need it more than we do here. But mostly because I want to thank them for the teaching me what true love is and looks like.
If you didn't get anything out of this, just simply remember the word love.
Love.


Thanks for reading!
Alex :)