People....

I have had an amazingly full weekend full of friends and family. Showers, weddings, catch-ups with high school and junior high school friends, family gatherings, church...

My weekend has abounded with people.

I have loved every moment of it. Even through sickness, not sleeping, and a normal job, these moments have been amazing.

And God has been prompting at my heart door...this is the reason I came, this is the reason you're here.

People matter. So much more than projects or ideas or opinions. God didn't send His Son to earth for projects or clean houses or things. He came for one reason, people.

When I was still writing for YWAM Cook Islands, I wrote a post (http://ywamcookislands.blogspot.ca/2014_01_01_archive.html) and I wrote the lyrics of a song, God loves people more than anything...(See the blog for complete lyrics).

That has been the overlying theme God has placed on my heart in the past few years. I'm learning it deeper and in more ways every day.

God loves people. He came for relationship. He came that we may have life and that we may have it abundantly.

And so what does that mean? How does that change the way that I treat people? How does that change the way that I organize and prioritize my day? What is most important to me? What do I value?

Honestly, sometimes I get stuck. I work for the sake of work. I do missions for the sake of missions. I do hobbies because I enjoy them. (FYI: there's nothing wrong with hobbies, work or missions, that's not what I'm getting at). Sometimes I forget that this is really about people. This is about restoring people to a relationship with a heavenly Father. This is about wholeness and true life.

God is teaching me, because often I'm quick to judge, slow to listen, slow to love. Often, I'm concerned with how people see me, concerned with my own reputation.

When I read the gospels, I don't see any of that in Jesus' life or ministry.

If a friend came up to you and confessed he'd committed adultery, what would you do? If a sister came up to you and confided that she was in bondage to lust or lying, how would you respond? Would you view that individual differently? Would you view them as dirty or unworthy?

Honestly, for much of my Christian life, I had a problem with other peoples' sin. I judged harshly, quickly, demanding a standard few people could live up to unless bound up in legalism and pride. I tried to love, but I so often fell short. I wanted to love people, and so often failed.

God is changing me. As a child, I accepted a challenge to read 1 Corinthians 13, the famous love chapter, every morning and evening for a month, and ask God to teach me to love others the way He commanded.

I grew older, and my desire to love diminished into laws and the need to obey every letter of the law. Then life happened. I failed. I failed at so many things, failed so many people. I messed up, screwed up, put bluntly, failed. Failed at life, failed at relationships, failed at pursuing God's heart. And God began to change me. He has brought me over and over again to 1 Corinthians 13, to 1 John, to many passages in the gospels of Christ's sacrificial love. He brought me to books on relationships, on the love languages, on serving. I'm learning, slowly, tediously, what it means to truly love others, to love others the way Christ loved the church.

It is hard. But it is His heart. It doesn't convenience me in any way. But it is His heart. It continually puts me last, when I so selfishly want to be first. But it is His heart.

I'm learning that this is missions. It's not about a program, or numbers, or projects. It's about people. It has the ability to happen anywhere. From family to friends to the workplace to ministry. It is God's heart to rescue the lost, to restore them, to love on them through us, His children.

God loves people more than anything, More than anything He wants them to know, He'd rather die than let them go...

Hopefully, this is a lesson I'll never stop learning...and I'll never stop sharing...