It’s possible to have many encouraging and challenging conversations with someone. But after you leave the coffee shop, other than listening and talking about important and not too important things that do show you care, what are the real tests that prove you love them? It’s too easy to say “see you next week” and head off not only in different directions but in different aspects of life that really expose the desperate need for up close love.
What’s going on in their family or your family that if exposed would provide an opportunity for more sacrificial love than the talk over coffee? When someone asks you a tough question is it easier to deflect the question or only share part of the answer? That does not get love out of the starting blocks. Or what about if they ask if you could do them a favor? And after they tell you the favor, you realize you’re late for whatever and have to leave.
One stormy and rainy night I got a call from a guy I had helped in personal discipleship and he wondered if I could come and get him, his wife and kid and tow them back into town. I quickly said yes and then he told me where he was. His truck broke down 140 miles away in the middle of nowhere. It really was near the middle of Wyoming. I had a choice that would either tell him love has limits or it is this real.
If you dare, memorize John 15:12-14 and Romans 16:3 and 4. But don’t stop there. Get in your truck and go tow someone in from wherever. Bring them some coffee and dinner.
5 1/2 hours after the phone call I received, I finally got to bed and my relationship with this man became like a brother. And just seeing the face of his wife and little girl when I arrived made the trip worth it.
English: Lightning over St-Laurent River by a stormy night in Quebec. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
