WHAT LOVE DOES

Not even 3 weeks ago, I took out my highlighter and marked these words in the foreword of a new book I was reading:

Wow.  And little did I know just how true I would soon find these words would be.

A week ago I got word that a loved one was going through a gut-wrenching situation.  Once everything came together for a flight to be booked, I had 20 minutes to pack and I was across the country that very night.  

Did I need a book to tell me I needed to be there in such a critical time?  Nope.  But I have realized this week that as much as I think love and feel love and pray love...

 I have been kind of crappy at DOING LOVE. 


I have the best of intentions, but intentions never change anyone's life.  I meant to send that letter, I meant to drop off a meal, I meant to make that phone call, I meant to visit.  But so often I forget, and someone misses out on the ministry of what I was meant to do.  


Too often I love and pray from afar.  But Jesus came near, and sometimes nearness is what is required to demonstrate love.  You can't hold someone from afar.  You can't look someone in the eye and boldly speak truth over them without some proximity.  


This week it's been a constant barrage of the truth that LOVE DOES. This is what I saw love look like this week:


~Love cared for the children by himself so his wife could go do something that mattered.


~Love offered to watch their friends' children so he could wrap up his school year while she was across the country.


~Love dropped off pizza, chicken, spaghetti, muffins, etc.


~Love texted prayers of love lifted up on behalf of someone they had never met.  


~Love booked a flight for someone else.


~Love gave up the convenience of their car for the week for the benefit of someone else.


~Love prepared a bed for someone to lay her head and spoke constant words of encouragement over her to fill her up so that she could serve another.  


Love DID stuff.  Because love DOES stuff!  


I want to look at things this way going forward, and I'll ask you to join me in it.  What would it look like for you to DO love this week?  


It's a new week around here.  Now that I'm home, love looks like holding down the fort while my husband ministers to people in the Dominican Republic.  Love looks like sending two birthday packages off.  It looks like making phone calls and checking in on things in California.  And it looks a whole lot like loving on my children.  And it looks like more stuff I'm waiting for God to reveal, although I'll need his strength to follow through and DO it when He does.  

Greater love has no man than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends.  

JOHN 15:13  

* Love Does by Bob Goff.  One of my new favorites!