A Reflection on Love from Indonesia

Love Reminder
By Sarah Seibert

We all want to be loved. But we often forget to give love to others.

The dictionary defines love as, “a strong feeling of affection, or a great interest and pleasure in something.” I am going to tell you the definition of love the Lord has been defining in my heart.

One of my favorite bands sings a song with the lyrics, “In these bodies we will live. In these bodies we will die, but where you invest your love, you invest your life.” So true. God gave us these bodies to be His hands and feet to love others in His name. We have one life to live, so why not spend it loving? We get so caught up in our own lives that we sometimes forget how or where to invest our love into something that really matters in life.

I love adventure. I love comfort-ability. I love being taken care of. I love getting paid. I love so much in this world…but in the end, do I love what matters in life? Do I love the homeless person who might just need someone to talk to? Do I set aside my own plans and paperwork to put people first? Do I live in the present in order to love those around me? Do I love those who need the love of Christ?

When reading the pages of The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, the Lord put two points on my heart.

The first point was, “The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. The best time to love is NOW.” Now is the time to love. How? You can stop giving into the human nature of selfishness and let the Lord renew your mind into thinking of selflessness. Take a moment out of your busy schedule to live in the present and see who is right in front of you who needs some love. Love the person who has hurt you. Love the neighbor you can’t stand to be around. Love people who are rich. Love people who are poor. When we love the people God puts in our lives, we also love Him.

I am currently teaching in Indonesia at a private “wealthy” school and it is a place I never would have imagined God would send me to love people. My heart has always been for those “less fortunate” and I am teaching children who have more money in their bank accounts than I do. But guess what? God said, “How can you put the ministry of loving people in a box?” By putting love in a box, I am ultimately putting Him in a box, because “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) If God is love, then the cheesy saying of, “All You Need is Love,” is so true.

Before teaching at this school, I tended to demonize the rich and idolize the poor, saying the poor needed more love. Newsflash for me, rich people need just as much love as anyone else. Some of my students don’t receive love from their parents because they are always gone on business trips. That is why I am here, to love the students in Jesus’ name. EVERYONE needs the LOVE of CHRIST no matter what status, ethnicity, culture, or class.

The second point was, “Busyness is a great enemy of relationships. We become preoccupied with making a living, doing our work, paying bills and accomplishing goals as if these tasks are the point to life. They are not. The point of life is learning to love-God and people. Life minus love equals nothing.” Amen to that and even Paul said, “…faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) We are called to love as followers of Jesus Christ.

Before you stop reading this and go out and start loving people, I know some of you might be thinking, well if you say to love everyone, won’t love lose its specialness or meaning. Not at all. C.S. Lewis wrote a book called,’The Four Loves,’ and it talks about the four loves which are: Philia-friendship, Eros-romance, Storge-affections and Agape-unconditional love. I am not saying to go love everyone in an Eros love, but in an Agape love. C.S. Lewis called Agape love the greatest love because that is the love Christ displays to us and that is the love we should display to others; a sacrificial love.

I am encouraging you, my Corban family, from half-way across the world, to love each other.