Loving Without Counting the Cost

All people on earth today have one thing in common. One deep desire; one wish: we all want to be loved. No one wants to be rejected. No one wants to matter less and no one wants to be the bad guy. All of us dream of being loved unconditionally and accepted as we are.

If you look at the heart of all emotional and mental health problems, there is a failure of achieving the universal need to receive love. A husband hurt them, a wife left them, a parent abandoned or abused them, or a stranger injured them. All these are examples of actions lacking love. We all want it and crave that love and in turn look for it everywhere: in family, friends, lovers or spouses; we even look in crowds of strangers. The unavoidable truth is that people are walking about wounded, wanting, and seeking the healing power of love.

The challenge God put in my heart was this one. Everyone cries for the same thing, but God cannot send angels to answer this cry. Someone—a human being—must be sent. That person risks loving people who will not answer the love in kind. Or perhaps those people will give love back but not enough of it or not as soon as that person would’ve liked. God said He had very few people to send because so many want to be loved and so few are willing to give love unless it can come back in full measure.

I struggled with that. We are told that loving people who are not ready to value that love or don’t return it in kind is enabling them or wasting your time. But God reminded me that this is exactly what He does with us. He loves us even when we have walked out on Him. And it is precisely that open door that heals us. God said He needs human beings that can demonstrate that kind of love so that people can see the love of God.

Then I wondered, “But what if I open myself up to further abuse?” God reminded me that loving the sinner doesn’t mean loving the sin. He tells us clearly, “I don’t like what you are doing to yourself and others with your actions, but you matter to me and my love and concern for you will not diminish.” God wants us to be better for our sakes. Then I bumped into another problem. I have been very hurt and wounded in my own life and needed that kind of love myself. How could God ask me to give something I don’t have and in fact, need?

However, God reminded me that I do have more than enough love to give if I dwell on all the love and care He has showered on me, all the blessings, all the rescue, all the provision I have received so much of. He reminded me all I have to do is give just a little bit more than I thought I could to each person in my life. Go just a little further. Give just a little bit more than they could give back. The world is full of pain, sorrow, and anguish. So many hearts are broken and wounded. God cannot answer these prayers unless he has people willing to be used to show His love. Someone must be willing to be the one through whom God gives his love. We must be willing to be vessels.

It sounds like a bad deal, right? Like, you will constantly give and never be valued or be appreciated or your own needs considered. But then again, you do have a reward. Some people come back years later and say thanks for giving and loving so freely. In some instances, people (or the trajectory of their lives) truly change. And in some…you will never see the effect, but the seed is planted. At that moment, your bottle fills up and you stop being empty.

If you haven’t heard, let me be the first to tell you: God has called you to minister to the wounded. If you obey Him, He will empower and expand your territories, and make you capable of far greater than you could’ve ever imagined. If you choose to decline the opportunity to be sent, God will continue to love you anyhow, but He will have one less person to send.

By M. W. Kimani