The Love Project

One of my first classes freshman year at Grace University was Foundations of Bible Study, and to this day is one of the most influential classes I have ever taken.  Thank You, Lord, for the grace and wisdom to lead GU to institute and teach that class!  I learned how to study my Bible effectively and deeply.  I learned about prayer.  Discipleship. Service.  Fellowship.  The whole "wheel" of the Christian life.  I am particularly grateful for Dr. Ron Rushing who taught that class, as the projects he assigned still have a lasting impact on me today.  This is where I learned to do my first word study (something I now love doing!).  It's also where I encountered the Love Project.

The Love Project was assigned to every freshman who came through Grace's doors, as they had to take this class.  We were to choose one person who drove us crazy, whom we didn't like, whom our attitude towards was admittedly poor, or worse.  Then we were to spend the semester praying for them and encouraging them from time to time.  This often meant sending a small note through campus mail, though if you really wanted to you could even send them gifts.  We tracked our activity, and at the end of the semester we wrote a paper on the outcome of the experiment.  Talk about a project that flies in the face of every human inclination!  How many people outside the Body of Christ do you think would willingly attempt to love on someone they hated?  Inside the body?  Here's the amazing thing: by the end of the semester, we didn't really hate them anymore.  One friend of mine attested to the fact that she had chosen a friend within our circle who grated on her a little; by the end, she loved her!  I didn't grow to really like the person I chose, but I did learn to feel compassion towards her and to not disdain her as I was tempted to do in the beginning.

It strikes me that maybe we could use something like the Love Project as an ongoing effort to love the body of Christ more, even today.  Why should it be confined to just a single semester in college?  Are there not people in my own fellowship that I do not love as I should?  I know there are.  So, I've decided.  I'm going to embark on a Love Project once again.  I have someone in mind already.  I won't share who it is, as that would be dishonoring to both them and myself to reveal a struggle like that.  But I do intend to pray for this person and to encourage them and to ask the Lord to change my heart.  Now, if you suddenly start receiving some encouragement notes from me, do not be alarmed!  The contemplation of this project has made me realize that I do not encourage enough as it is.  There are many people I esteem or appreciate who may have no idea that I do!  And so, it is my intention to not only encourage this person, but others around me.  To be more intentional about being a Barnabas.

I'd like to challenge you to join me.  Not because it's February, the month of love (please, please, hear the sarcasm in that word love).  In Christ, every month should be an outpouring of love for those around us.  I ask you to join me as I suspect I'm not the only one who struggles to love others as Christ loves us.  From experience, I can tell you how much you'd be amazed to see Christ change your heart in this matter, how much He draws you to Himself when you earnestly seek to honor Him in such a way.  I'd love to teach a class or monopolize a portion of a conference so I myself could assign this project to others so that they can see the power prayer and love can have on someone's heart, particularly your own!  But as I don't have that power (probably a good thing), I am simply challenging anyone who is willing to do it to join me.  If you like, leave a comment and let me know you are.  You don't have to be conspicuous in doing it; in fact, it's best not to be, so that the focus is on the Lord and on the other person, not our own efforts.  But simple, regular prayer and an occasional kind word will suffice.  And watch how the Lord changes you!