The Measure of Love

Sometimes I wonder how my work measures for the Lord. Some may look for the number of people who have started relationships with Christ, or the number of people in attendance at Bible studies, or the number of times I preach in a month or year. But what is the measure of Love?? What if my job description read "Love everyone around you." And that was it. That the extent of my work to be paid for as a missionary was to Love? How refreshing it would be to step away from the measure of this world and live totally and completely under the measure of Christ. Whole heartedly given away, to loving everyone under the sun with my heart, soul and mind.

How does one know they are successful in this business of loving? There is no measure. You have successfully loved 20 people today and that will produce "X" amount of love in others. There is no measure. For what is the fruit of LOVE?

Yesterday I returned from my bike trip to Mlumpe to find three little rascals on my roof. Now of all the people in my life who come to my house and find the gate locked, only ONE person has figured out how to open the gate without the combination to the lock. SANDARINE!!! My petite Sandarine. I love her dearly. She is perhaps 7 years old and the size of a 4 year old. She comes to visit me often, with groups and alone. She comes to be loved. She'll sit in my kitchen and just watch me. Always a smile on her face always ready for a hug when she leaves. Yes, she is my measure of love. The only one who knows how to open my door. She knows my secret. Yesterday I scolded them for being on the roof and for being at the house when no one was there, but they don't speak French, they don't understand what I am saying. They understand only Love.

1 John 3:16
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another

I don't know if I am successful in many other missionary type ways. My life here in Senegal has no measure that I know from my past experience. I am still here if that is a measure of my resolve to serve Christ. I am still pushing forward in language and making disciples. But the fruit of my ministry seems to be in love. Only Jesus has the combination to count how much love I have for others and how it will change their lives tommorrow, next year or in thirty years.