No Strings Attached

I am a terrible driver, I genuinely cannot remember the last time I was on time for one of my college exams, I hate spicy food, and I cannot pronounce the word “quesadilla” correctly to save my life. However, the one thing I thought I had finally figured out by now is how to be a loving person. Turns out, I was mistaken.

Being a loving person looks differently to everyone. To me, I always believed “loving others” meant encouraging others to follow their dreams, being there for my friends when they’re in need, and being polite to strangers.

It wasn’t until I began ministry in Thailand that I began to notice that the way I love people is much different than the way in which Jesus loves people, and the way He has called us to love one another.

Jesus is our example of what it means to love others. As I flip through the pages of the Bible, I am blown away by the ways in which Jesus loved people. He loved the people who were utterly broken, unwanted by society, and the ones who could never love Him back.

It dawned on me that back home in America, I, subconsciously and strategically, have structured my life in a way that allows me to love faithfully; only because I surround myself with the people who I am certain will love me back.

I cannot help but think of the hundreds of people who have crossed my path in the routine of my everyday life this past year. The group of homeless people I pass every single morning on the way to my Psychology class at the University of Colorado, yet I never once smiled at them or had a conversation, but instead carefully stepped around them, as if they were hindering my walk to class. The young man who unintentionally cuts me in line at the University bookstore, and I habitually roll my eyes and begin tapping my foot, as if my entire day is now ruined. The friends I have lost contact with over the years because they are traveling the world, and my thought process is, why would I invest time and love into the people whom I may never see again? The people in these situations are people I labeled as being insignificant in my everyday life, or unworthy of my love. I don’t want to live with this perception any longer.

I faced the same issue the first time I walked along Chiang Mai’s Red Light District. Before I even stepped off of the plane from America, I had prepared my heart to love the prostitutes working in the bars. What I didn’t anticipate was the confusion and anger I would feel toward the men buying the women, or the bartenders who watch this take place night after night. However, God has called us to love these people too, because they are just as desperate and deserving of God’s love as I am.

God calls us to “Love each other in the same way I have loved you” (John 15:12). God loves me more than I’ll ever understand. He loves me unconditionally despite my flaws, failures, and insecurities. This is the type of love that I want to invade my every-day life, and the lives of others. The no strings attached, no expectations, no boundaries, crazy kind of love that God continues to pour into my heart.