On Love and Outreach

If I speak human or angelic languages but do not have love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 

If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 

And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. 

Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not conceited, does not act improperly, is not selfish, is not provoked, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

But as for prophecies, they will come to an end;

as for languages, they will cease;

as for knowledge, it will come to an end.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man [or woman], I put aside childish things. For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. 

Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

-1 Corinthians 13

But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart will rejoice in your salvation.

-Psalm 13:5

Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer.

-Ruth 14:4

I've learned a few cool things today. And it's only 2:30 so far. I have so much more to learn. Today and in the next 5 months. These are some key truths that pierced my heart today: 

1. I am fully known (by God) even though I don't know all of Him or all of His ways.

2. Without love, nothing would matter. Nothing would exist. 

3. I am completely inadequate when it comes to my ability to love...If I put my name in the place where the word "love" shows up in 1 Corinthians 13, it would all be a lie. I've hardly ever been patient, kind, etc....

4. Someday I will get to see the meaning of true love and the extent of God's glory in full, not just in part like I do now on earth. 

5. God's love is steadfast. It doesn't change. IT. DOESN'T. CHANGE. 

6. God's love is enough to for him to sit and watch the blood of his own Son pour out...so that it may redeem the rest of us. He has not left us without a redeemer. 

7. God's covenant with us (after sending Jesus) is a serious, intense matter. Along the same lines or moreso than a bond of marriage.

8. The bond/covenant of marriage is something I can't fully understand. I know last year at this time I had no regard for what marriage really is. Lord, forgive me for my ignorance to the beauty of your covenant. 

9. There is no situation that He cannot redeem.

Aside from learning a lot about love in the past few days in class, I've been praying pretty hardcore about the country God wants me to go on Outreach. I'll tell you the official decision in a few days, but I want to share with you the scriptures He showed me when pursuing this decision:

A voice says, "Cry!"

And I said, "What shall I cry?"

All flesh is grass, and all beauty is like the flower of the field. 

The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows in it; 

Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. 

Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; 

Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; 

Lift it up, fear not;

-Isaiah 40:6-9

God said,

"Do not say, 'I am only a youth'; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you."

-Jeremiah 1:7-8

I'm going to need a voice of strength. I'll need to put aside my fear of being "too young" to share God's love with the people I meet. I'll get the chance to proclaim God's glory as on a mountain high. Ahh, I love the Isaiah verse so much. And I love when he says, "Lift it up, fear not." So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to lift up my voice, and say whatever he commands me to say, without fear. Instead of fear, I will have love. What I'm doing, who I am, where I'm going would all be worthless without love. God, help me love the people of the country you're sending me to...

Start the drumroll, people. I'm so excited to share my Outreach destination with you! Wait patiently. The time is coming...

Peace.