Recently, I have been thinking and talking a lot about love. Love is a word that encompasses so many different situations and scenarios, but it all expresses the same thing: a level of humility that places someone else above yourself, all out of a genuine, amazingly strong care for that person.

Love is staying on the phone late at night with a friend who is going through impossible circumstances when every part of your body is telling you to sleep. Love doesn’t leave people who are hurting.

Love is providing a meal for someone who has no food, because love doesn’t let people go hungry.

Love is sharing the Love and Peace of God with others when they are desperately searching for something meaningful in this world, because true love shares the Truest Love of all.

Love is saying yes to the man/woman of your dreams and committing to a life with them, because true love is committed.

Love is waking up to find out that your place of work has been closed down for the day because of inclement weather, and that means you don’t have to risk your life driving in a foot of snow. Love places lives above dollars.

Love is forgiving someone even when they hurt you. Love means second, third, fourth, and fifth chances.

Love that bright, warm, ‘winter’ day full of sunshine; it’s like God is saying “I know how much you need this. I love you!” Love is full of little things that point to its beauty.

Love is putting yourself after others. If we all put each other first, then everyone would have their needs met and no one would be selfish.

Love is being willing to have super hard conversations when it’s all but convenient, because love doesn’t sweep things under the rug.

Love is sacrificing oneself for the fate of the world. Love is humbling one’s Holy self to the hands of man who only know earthly judgement because Love doesn’t stop with merely talking and preaching, no, love doesn’t stop with miracles or instructing: Love keeps on going until it gives its very last. The cross is true love not just because it allows us to fully live through the salvation it brought that day and the salvation it brings us daily, but it is the perfect symbol of what true love really is: an unrelenting form of sacrifice that is not satisfied until all have felt, heard, and seen its message.

Love will not stop until the whole world hears.

1 Corinthians 13:1-10

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;^a but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages^b and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

The past few days have been full of laughter, pensive moments, and worship. I can honestly say that I am living the dream right now, but we were never called to a life of ease, but we are called to a life of fulfillment and blessings. There are seasons in all of our lives with which God begins to open up our hearts and to heal parts of us that were closed off before. I, friends, am realizing I am in one of those seasons. As many of you know, my father was extremely ill with daily migraines for a large portion of my adolescence, and there are quite a bit of unprocessed pain from that season of my life that God is stirring up in me. Being healed in a season in which God is healing those around me and those I work with is such a blessing. The fact of the matter is that we ALL have hurts, and we all have broken pieces in us. Our human nature is to hold on to them, to stuff them down, so that we can function and live our daily lives. This coping mechanism is a gift from God, but there comes a time when God begins to upheave all of this. He desperately wants to make us whole in Him, and while it is not possible to be completely whole here on this earth, I am so encouraged by the pouring out of His spirit in me and those around me that leads to healing moments. This world is not our home, and one day we will be whole again. I covet your prayers in this healing season I’m involved in, both for me and the teens and adults I am working alongside. I am working with people who have not found Hope, and I sincerely pray that they find Hope and refuge in Jesus. May this time be a Holy time full of redemption and grace in Jesus name!

Today, I had the amazing opportunity of attending a small get together about the ongoing Ebola crisis in West Africa. It was a presentation and conversation about methods that need to be used to reach oral cultures with pertinent information about disease prevention; these cultures have zero-to-no literacy and will not be able to learn or process information via written words. I am extremely interested in this because of my interest in both International Affairs and foreign language. I am also reminded today how amazingly blessed I am to have been born in this country. I have had education handed to me on a silver platter, and I spend my day preparing $5 lattes to the general public. It is not bad to have come from wealth, but there is extreme hopeless poverty that exists, and I escaped it merely because I was born here. If you are reading this right now, you are among the fortunate 20% of the world who has learned how to read. 80% of the world does have the opportunity to learn how to read. That is crazy to me. I have spent time in Peru, and I’ve seen poverty that surpasses my understanding, and it simply breaks my heart to know that I cannot do anything physically substantial to alleviate the poverty of this world. What I can do, and what you can also do, is realize that you are so blessed by God, and that He has blessed you for a reason. We are called to share that which God gives us to those who do not have. The church’s responsibility is to share both the economic and spiritual blessings we have to meet ALL of the needs of those around the world who have not. The only difference between you and a starving child in Africa is that you were born here and they were born there. It’s as simple as that. There is nothing wrong with having a life full of resources and access to resources, but it is so important to realize that you did not attain them in the womb by act of virtue, but by act of blessing. Blessings are meant to be shared. If all you can do is pray, then that is all the LORD is calling you to do. I am sincerely asking all of you, however, to pray about doing more; ask God to place a specific calling on your heart to give a piece of yourself (time, money, conversations, activism, etc.) to a cause He lays on your heart. North America holds 5.17% of the worlds population and 27.1% of its net worth. I am not saying that we should equally distribute wealth from a political perspective, but I am saying that all money is God’s money and that He has great plans for every one of His children! There are great needs around the world, and I stand firm that through humbly laying down our resources to God we can truly make a difference in this world. God is ready to use YOU! Please take some time this week and pray about how God is leading you to make a difference.

On a separate note, my father is flying down to Florida this week to be with my grandmother who is battling her third bout of cancer. It is hard to see her deteriorate, but we are confident that through all things, God is LORD. Please keep them and my family in your prayers as we walk this journey.