By Cindy Allen
I have a confession to make…I LOVE TO READ. And my favorite genre is historical Christian romance. Growing up I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder and Janette Oke. I have all their books and I have reread them LOTS of times. Recently, I reread The Calling of Emily Evans by Oke. It is about a young girl living in the early 1900s in Canada who feels called to do mission work. She is sent to a small community to plant a church. Needless to say, some of the people are not welcoming of her religious ideas. Interestingly enough, she does not use that as an excuse to not visit those people. They know where she stands, they know she is a deaconess, but when she visits them, she talks of the weather and the garden and regular things. As the story unfolds, you see several of these people turning to religion, not because she was a “Bible thumper” but because she was their friend. She showed the kindness of God, she offered a cool drink to a needy person and that caused these people to warm up to her and to their Heavenly Father.
I got to thinking after reading the book about the subtle ways she influenced these people’s lives. One of her Bible college friends had 28 people in church the first Sunday. Emily had one mom and her kids her first Sunday, and many Sundays after that. But when a man passed away and she prepared the body, his wife came seeking salvation. The grocer in town was very surly and unreceptive but by the end of the book he had warmed up to her. He was also the one that got in to religious conversations with her, asking hard questions. In response, she dug into her Bible and found answers that strengthened her faith and hopefully swayed him.
She didn’t do anything that we cannot do. She loved people. She pointed out early that she was a follower of Jesus, then she just lived out her life in a way that showed that relationship was her guiding factor. She didn’t judge people; she didn’t mark them off her list because they weren’t open to coming to church. She just loved them. And it wasn’t easy. And she didn’t do it perfectly. One time she had to apologize to the grocer for losing her cool. She told him her God would not approve of her behavior.
This is what our world needs, us to love them. Hopefully if they are around us very long, people will see we are followers of Christ. And as the saying goes, “Actions speak louder than words.” When we love them, they will hopefully tie it back to our love for Jesus. If you look at Jesus’ life, he didn’t get in most people’s faces, he just quietly lived a good life (a perfect life) and people responded. And people will respond to us to when we show the love of Jesus.
Prayer: God, I think you for my salvation. As I live my life, please help me to share your love with others in my words and deeds. Help me to be mindful that the world around me desperately needs you and I have people in my life everyday that need me to show you to them. Help me not to fail and forgive me when I do. In Jesus’ name, Amen
Scripture Reading: Romans 12, Philippians 2:1-18
Response: As you go through your daily life, look for people who need the love of Jesus. They may not want to listen to your words, but many people are softened by our actions. God’s love changed your life, show that to those you meet.