It's All About the People

"I could see you doing this for the rest of your life," my professor, Dr. Starr, said to me as I sat on the ground comforting two crying Indian children. At the time, I assumed that he meant he could see me being a missionary. I took that statement to heart. It stuck with me and caused me to seriously contemplate what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Was I supposed to be a missionary? Was God calling me to another country? What was my purpose? I spent almost a whole semester of college struggling with these questions.

And slowly, I began to realize that no, I probably wasn't going to be a missionary. I probably wouldn't be packing up and moving to another country when I graduated from college. So, that was that. I didn't think much about what Dr. Starr had said to me again until this summer.

This summer as I awaited my trip to Guatemala, I began reading a book called Jesus Is _____. The more I read, the more Jesus revealed His character to me. For so long I thought of Jesus as God, but I never thought much about the fact that He was human too, that He interacted with people, that he walked around. I don't know; I read about it, but never truly grasped its reality. Until this summer that is. The thing that struck me most and convicted me most was that Jesus loved everybody. He loved the unloved. He saw the invisible people. He took time to notice and care for the outcasts.

In Guatemala, Dr. Starr's words in India came to mind once again. "I could see you doing this for the rest of your life." I still don't know exactly what he meant, but suddenly the ambiguous "this" didn't mean being a missionary. Instead, "this" simply meant loving people.

There are people everywhere that need to be loved and that need to know Jesus' love. And I can do that! No matter where I am, I can love people. Whether I am at school, working in a cubicle, or traveling the world, God has called me to love because He first loved me.

Coming home from Guatemala I didn't experience the kind of discontent that I experienced after India. I think it's because I learned this: it's all about the people. It's all about taking the time to form real friendships. It's all about seeing the invisible people. It's all about listening to untold stories. It doesn't matter where I am, I can love people just as much at my college and in my city as I can in India or Guatemala or anywhere else in the world.

I don't know where I read this, but I keep this little nugget of wisdom in the back of my mind:

You cannot love your brother across the world if you cannot love your neighbor across the street.

So I challenge you friends: where ever you are, whether you are living in the place you've always lived or across the world, show genuine love to the people that you encounter. I could see you doing this for the rest of your life.