Love of another kind

When I joined YWAM in 1994, I wasn't happy with my place on the staff team. It was terribly lonely and I cried every day.  I think I can deal with a lot of things as long as I feel like I'm loved and that people really care. But that's more rare than you would believe. Here I was in a missionary training centre known around the world, made famous by Loren Cunningham's book "Is that really you god?" We were running schools and training people to go to the nations and we used big phrases like "discipling nations." And yet when my leader asked me "What are you looking for?" when we met to discuss my dissatisfaction on staff... I said simply, "Family."  He told me point-blank: "You aren't going to find that here." I am happy to report that this particular staff team did change quite a bit and became more of a family over the time I was there-- but at this point in my journey in ministry, I was really disappointed.  Jesus said that the world would know we are His disciples by our love for one another.  I think the difference between "love" and "family" is a commitment. It's easy to "love" someone for an hour or so on Sunday but  to be a part of family implies involvement in their lives and commitment to help them grow.  I think we are good at tolerating people at church but not necessarily good at loving them.   Here is what Jesus had to say about family:  "While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. Someone said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You." But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?" For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother." (Matthew 12:46-48, 50 NASB) Here's the thing-- we cannot pass on what we don't have ourselves.   I am so grateful to the people who have opened their homes to me over the years--the first real family to "adopt" me were the Ghormley's. Justus and Jayn let me spend weekends at their home when I was based in Los Angeles in the late 1990's. It was the first spirit-filled family I ever got to see up close and personal, and they are still dear friends to me today. Their hospitality to people in their home is astounding. I'm not the only one who needs family like that-- there are a host of people who need to see what real Christian families looks like...and if we won't take them into our homes and into our families, how will they know the love of God? God is helping me these days to go deeper with His love. So even when I don't see it in the church the way I would like, I can always find an abundance with the Holy Spirit. I was really struck recently when I heard Joyce Meyer say her first preach was all about the love of God. God told her "Tell my people I love them" and she spent the first year of ministry studying the love of God and working on believing and receiving the love of God for herself. You can't give what you don't have. We can only pass on what we have experienced ourselves. When we know God is committed to us no matter what-- not based on our performance--but that He embraces us as His children, we will be able to love others in the same way. We belong to Him and nothing can change that. I'm amazed at this incredible love of God that is based on WHO GOD IS and not what I can say or do to perform my way into good favor.  We need to get a hold of this so we can be the family of God He is calling us to be