Love Tank...Fill'er Up

Everyone comes on a mission trip with their love tank topped off. I advise our youth to prepare for the week by pumping their hearts full of “good stuff.” The heavy demands of the week, (intense heat, long work days, frustrating assignments, garrulous strangers), begin to apply pressure to us. These stimuli squeeze out whatever we have stored up in our hearts. Luke 6:45 says, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” The good undoubtedly expresses itself as love toward one another. What happens, though, when our love tank runs dry?

When I read the Golden Rule, Matthew 7:12, the I find some relief, but I also feel the pressure build. “Whatever [I] wish that others would do to [me],” I’m supposed to “do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Loving one another will satisfy all other commands! If we can love, even when we’re squeezed by great pressures, we will be faithful and obedient to the entire law. That's great news, but failure to treat others the way I wish others would treat me is a failure to love. I know how much I wish others would treat me in a certain way, and the thought of attempting to do that for others to fulfill the law is sobering.

On this trip, our team came with their love tanks full. It was easy to treat people the way we wished they would treat us because we were full of love. Each time something didn't go our way or we had to bend for someone else’s issues, we flexed and were loving. But the week continued. And more pressures came. More love was withdrawn from our account, and by midweek, it’s time to panic. It’s easy to love when we’re full of love. We have tons to spare. But when we’re sensing a low tank, we switch to red alert. The generous displays of love become more selective to conserve what rations we have left. Times of loving freely are replaced by a weighing cost-benefit ratio. When our needs are taken care of, it’s easy to love someone else. When there is risk to our own comfort, generosity and sacrifice fade and we try to keep what love we have left for ourselves.

Praise God for what precedes The Golden Rule. Matthew 7:12 is empowering for what lies before it. Immediately prior to this command to love others just as we want to be loved, Jesus says,

⁷ Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? ¹¹ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Before God tells us to love others, he tells us to come to Him for all we need! I know this because of one small word: SO. The NIV chooses not to translate this small word at the beginning of verse 12, but it’s there in the Greek, and it's implications are soul satisfying. “THEREFORE...” do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The “so” lets us know that the prior portion gives us the basis for what follows. Without that linking word, we’re left on our own to continue to love our neighbors and only rely of the love others might give us to sustain us.

I know our group’s love tank is being tapped into this week. We heard testimonies from homeowners at a community dinner tonight. It is very obvious our group is loving others evidenced by the tear-soaked thanks given after dinner. The other, less favorable evidence, is found by the waning patience and eagerness to serve of our group. Please pray our team would be pumping themselves full of God’s love to replenish their supply, that they would come before the throne of grace and plead for him to extend his gracious hand. He is a faithful Father who promises love!