When I
arrived in Africa 16 years ago I would often hear phrases like “Go well”, “Stay
well”, “Travel well.” Even in the Shona language, “Fambai zvakanaka” literally
means “Walk good” but in its general sense, “Travel well.” Not that I adopt every
phrase I hear, I did these ones because of the encouragement in them.
I
turned 52 today and as I was contemplating what words of wisdom I would want to
pass on, they would be quite simply, and yet so powerfully be, “Love well”. The
last few days my devotions have been in Matthew 5 where Jesus is presenting
some pretty big challenges to His disciples in the area of what it means to
“Love well”. One of the challenges He gives is “Whoever compels you to go one
mile, go with him two.” It is only when we search beneath the surface of such a
statement that we can understand it within the context it was written. At the
time Jesus spoke these words the Romans had occupied Israel for around 100
years. Roman soldiers had the right to order Jews to carry their equipment that
weighed around 100lbs or 45kg for one Roman mile that was equal to 1000
paces. The Jews loathed this law and would often mark off those paces and not
carry the burden one step further. So here we have Jesus, a Jew, exhorting His
Jewish followers to go beyond the call of duty or the requirements of the law.
In this case it would be a challenge to love their enemies well.
For me,
I view this as a call to “Love well” whoever comes across my journey. This is
definitely something I haven’t done well in my 52 years. Only as I die daily to
self and allow Christ’s love to live out of me am I able to see the possibility
of what it means to “Love well”. Trust me, if you want opportunities of seeing
the possibilities, and pray for those, He is more than willing to provide you
with them. Then when you find yourself responding rather than reacting, you
thank God for His amazing grace and mercy. When you find yourself giving, and
not thinking of what you will get in return, you thank God for His incredible
faithfulness. When you release words of encouragement and edification instead
of words of blame and accusation, you thank God for the words of life He has
spoken over you.
My
prayer for myself, and those I walk with, is that we will never stop desiring to
“Love well”.
