Boring Love

             A few weeks ago, my team and I were out doing door to door evangelism in a Kenyan town called Nkubu.  One morning, we came to the house of a man named Joseph.  We soon learned that Joseph believed himself to be a prophet and was believing a lot of spiritual lies.  To be honest, when we first foudn out about Joseph, I was excited.   I was ready to go to war and to see my God win.  And so we talked/debated with Joseph for awhile and prayed for him and left.  No big spiritual show. 
            But the next day, Joseph was still on my mind and heart.  At first, it was more of a pride issue.  I felt like I could have done more, and I wanted to go back and do more and see something happen.  But as I spent time with God, he began to change my heart.  I was reminded that my war was not “against flesh and blood, but against . . . the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”  (Ephesians 6:12)  I began to see Joseph as a person, a person who was trapped in a spiritual prison.  And my heart began to desire to see him set free.  So several of my teammates and I decided to go back to Joseph’s place and talk to him and pray for him some more.  And so we did.  And we talked, and we prayed, and when we left, Joseph was still trapped.  (However, I do believe that God worked in some amazing ways in that community through our prayers and time there.) 
            A couple days later, when we were back in Kijabe, I was spending time with God outside of the church, and I saw a drunken man being led away.  And I began to realize that he is someone who deserves God’s love.  And 1 Corinthians 13 came to my mind. 

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing . . . Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

1 Corinthians 13:1-3, 7

I am so ready and eager to do God’s will when it’s the cool, exciting spiritual stuff.  But how eager am I to do God’s will when it‘s the boring job of talking to and praying for the drunk, homeless man?  I am so ready and eager to do God’s will when it involves intense spiritual warfare.  But how eager am I to do God’s will when it’s to simply show patience and love to the teammate that can annoy me? 
            Over these past several months, I’ve learned so much about the importance of love.  God is love (1 John 4:8), and as cheesy as it may sound, love really is the answer to everything.  Jesus’ entire ministry was revolved around love.  Every miracle that he did, every word that he spoke, it was all done out of love, up to his obedient death on the cross for our sins.  We have done a lot of good things here in Kenya.  We’ve prayed for a lot of hopeless people, spoken a lot of truth, and played with many children.  But honestly, according to God’s Word, if we’re not here in love, none of that matters.  In fact, Jesus says that that’s how the world will know that we are Christians:  love.  So what does the world know about you?

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another:  just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

John 13:35