Love.

The kids are loving Alaska and the ferry rides that take us along the Alaska Marine Highway System. My thoughts about the kids have been numerous lately as I am realizing that the end of tour is not too far off. I want the best for them. My heart aches with longing to help them more, to pour into them more. There is a song I love by jj heller and one of the verses goes something like this:

Who will love me for me?

Not for what I have done or

what I'll become.

Who will love me for me?

The verse struck me as I imagined the kids asking me this very thing. While Christ can only love us wholly and completely I pray that I would love the children like this; not based on their past, present, or future, but based on the knowledge that they are sculpted and designed in His image.

The song ends with this:

I will love you for you.

Not for what you have done

or what you will become.

I will love you for you.

I will love you for you.

The love that you never knew.

Can you imagine what our days would be filled with if we loved each other with a love not based on performance, status, or any other sort of standards, but loving them for them? I can't promise that I will love this team, this family comprised of people from different nations perfectly, but each day I can aim to love others without requisite.

Yes, these children will do great things. They will bring change and hope to their families, villages, schools, churches, and communities; they are already doing that. I'm just asking for God's eyes towards them, eyes overcome with agape love.

Lord, may your kingdom come to earth. May we have glimpses and moments of what heaven will feel like as we sacrifice our desires to your heavenly ones. Give us your desires God. Burn within us a passion to make your name realized throughout this earth; a passion that burns off the things that hinder.