What love in God's Name can do

     Yesterday, I had the gift of seeing God's work in action through the loving hands of others.  There is a wonderful place in my city run by the Little Sisters of the Poor.  These nuns have devoted their lives to ministering selflessly to the blessed people who live in their retirement home.  Their stated motivation is to share the love and compassion of Jesus.  They are the quiet backbone of the place, and they live their sincerity in every aspect of making this place into a genuine home for their residents.
     The grounds are stunning, with beautifully-maintained gardens.  The clean, fresh rooms have large windows with views of the mountains or the city. The food is excellent. The nuns select employees and volunteers to assist their beloved residents who are not only glad to be working there, but who truly care about the people they are serving.  When a staff member noticed that a resident with a hard-to-please appetite was devouring the hash at breakfast, for example, that staffer quickly saved an extra serving of hash for her to eat at a later meal. 
     And the result of all this?  The residents live an astonishingly long time. People enter this facility with terminal cancer, and get better.  People may enter in their late 70s, and live 20 years or more. I was there for the celebration of a resident's 95th birthday.  She looked younger than her years, because she was living so well.  
     Understandably, the waiting list for new residents is endless, because the reputation of this wonderful place continues to spread--and the people who live here aren't leaving!  Who wouldn't want to stay there?  To be cared for with great love, fed good food in a lovely setting--what's not to love?     
     It was a breath of fresh air in an airless world to see a place where God's love is shown and poured out so sweetly.  The world hungers for this, doesn't it?  When God's plan is lived out, the world sees it, and wants what he offers.

How can I pour out your love, Lord today?  Show me ways to be careful and attentive to the very real human needs around me.  Help me to see with your eyes and your compassion, not just the people "out there," but those in my own family it's easier to overlook.  Please, Lord, replace my weary heart and spirit with your eternal Spirit. 
Breathe into me your newness, your energy, to your glory. 

If you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your gloom will rise like the midday.

Isaiah 58:10

Transformed by love

I was at the airport this week, waiting to pick up my parents, who had flown in for a visit.

An airport is such a good place to see how people's faces mystically change before and after they see their loved one. Before, frankly, all you see is a set of features: a nose, two eyes, a mouth and some hair. You would never think there is anything distinctive or interesting about this person. But after: alive, and vibrant, each face transforms with vitality and warmth. You want to know who is inside this face.

What happened? Love, of course. They met up with the person they loved. It filled them up with life. Every face was flat before, yet every face came to life after it saw the one it loved.

I was reading Psalm 42 this morning. The psalmist was going through a terrible time, and sharing honestly about it with God. He sounded genuinely depressed, but he remembered in the midst of his very real sadness that God was not leaving him. "Why are you downncast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God."

The psalmist was just like the people in the airport, with the flat face and heart. His life was sucked out, waiting to be filled with his love for God. I'm sure I look the same: Fill me now, Lord! I'm ordinary and just a bunch of features. Make me what you want and need me to be for your glory.

By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me--a prayer to the God of my life. Psalm 42:8