Love in Action

"By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." - 1 John 3:16

Today started out in a very frustrating way, but thankfully got much better. It started with me attempting to contact my credit card company to activate my new card. Now my original card had been compromised by a merchant, so the company automatically changed my account number. They sent me an e-mail telling me to call and activate the new card. Well, when I originally got the e-mail, the new card had not arrived yet, and probably wouldn't for several weeks. So I contacted them as requested, and they said they could rush another card to someone who was coming and could bring it to me. They did. When the card arrived, I called to activate it while I was in the city. Before I could activate it, I had to tell them again the address where I had the new one rushed. I had that information back at the ranch, so I was going to have to call again. This was after they already asked me all the security questions to verify it was me. I asked if since they verified me with all the security questions if they could trust that I had received the card, it was not stolen. No. So I tried calling back at the ranch on my cell phone. I went through all the security questions, but the call got dropped because my cell phone drops calls regularly. So I called again. This time, because they had accessed my security questions too many times, I was told that I would have to send them documents proving who I was. I tried explaining I live in a foreign country, but they said I should have someone else mail them. What do they need? A driver's license and recent utility bill. I don't have utility bills, I live on a mountain in Honduras. Ok then, car insurance. Don't have it. Car registration? I have it for my car in Honduras. No, has to be for the U.S. How about a W-2 or W-4? I don't have those, I receive a 1099. Not acceptable. In other words, I cannot activate my card without verification, but I do not have any acceptable documents to prove I am who I am. Result? I had to cancel the credit card I have been using for over 10 years because I have no way to prove I am me. Very frustrating. Thankfully, I have another one. I had to activate that one today too, because it expired Nov.30th. I was nervous to call that company after the previous disaster. Thankfully, they were much more helpful.

So that's how my day started. It got better, though. I ended up going to the city with a friend so he could get a bus ticket to Nicaragua. We had an interesting time trying to find the bus station that everyone was giving us different directions to get to it. After about an hour, we finally found it. I felt a great sense of accomplishment when we finally got there.

From there, we drove out to Siguatapeque, a town about 2 1/2 hours north of the city. We were interested in visiting a Christian camp out there that I might use for a spiritual retreat for our high school kids. They have a lot of fun activities, including a high ropes course, that I think the kids would really enjoy. Sometimes kids are more receptive to spiritual things when it is outside their everyday surroundings. Anyways, we had five hours to talk in the car (except when we listened to a couple of sermons). One of the things we talked about was how we show the love of Christ (or not) to the people around us. I have come to realize that oftentimes we as Christians become so self-absorbed that we forget to love others well. True love was demonstrated to us by Christ dying on the cross. The Scriptures say that we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, that is, our brothers and sisters in Christ. But do we really do that? Ever? Sometimes we are willing to make small sacrifices for the sake of our brethren. However, if it is a huge inconvenience, or if it is going to make us somewhat uncomfortable, we are unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to show the love of Christ. When I came onto the mission field, my missions director said that the number one reason why missionaries leave the field is because of other missionaries. How sad is that? If we are unable to show the love of Christ to one another as believers, how can we possibly demonstrate love to those who don't believe?

There is someone very close to me that has taught me all about the heart of Christ. This person loves people as I believe Christ loved those around Him. Whether they are poor, sick, addicted to drugs and alcohol, or even murderers (yes, even them), this person tries to see the hurting soul beneath the tough, dirty exterior. And then, this person shows them the love of Christ. Sometimes food, clothing, or money is distributed, sometimes health care is sought, sometimes forgiveness is given for theft. The result? The doors of their hearts are opened to hear and receive the gospel. But it takes a willingness to see past the hardened exterior to reach out to these people. The only real way to do it is to look outside of our own selfishness to see the needs of others. And I have come to realize that EVERYONE has needs, including those closest to us.

The lesson I have learned through all of this? I need to look outside of myself even more, see the hurt and needs of the people around me, and learn to love them with the love Christ has for us. That includes even when I am frustrated about a stupid credit card. It is my desire to start looking for opportunities to show the people around me the love of Christ, even if it means making sacrifices. After all, that's what we are commanded to do.