Labor of Love

Charlie and I just got involved on the board of a ministry that we care DEEPLY about.
 We know this ministry we know and love these people. 

We went to our first meeting and it was 8 of the hardest most precious hours I've spent in a LONG time.

  It was a meeting that discussed tough issues and important decisions.

   It was a meeting that was about the body of Christ and serving and vision and relationships and communication and

 LOVE

 and how we do that in a broken world with broken people. 

The hours were hard and frustrating at times and emotional at times, but there was 

LOVE

 present and

 FORGIVENESS and GRACE

 abundant.

The

 HOLY SPIRIT

 took a group of people and worked out some tough stuff and gave vision and purpose and unity.

God is love

 and love is what it is all about, and anyone who is invested 100% in loving God and loving people knows that with people comes differences and communication and it's all very hard work. 

I know that most of us would be more comfortable physically working HARD for 8 hours than to WORK through people and relationship stuff for 8 hours.

God called us to LOVE.
 To love God and to Love people!  

Loving God is hard because we get messed up and keep trying to earn it or put it in a formula and it is about a day to day
 RELATIONSHIP.

Loving people is hard because people are messed up.

The beauty of it all is where God and His Word are present (and I can assure there was) and people that are willing to work through it all and keep going to

 God in prayer 

and His Word for guidance

 there is beauty and joy and a body that can love and work together and let God use it in ways that we could never think or imagine on our own.  

I know there were times in the 8 hours that I wanted to be done...kinda like labor.....you just want to be DONE, but once you push through there is this birth of knowing you are a part of something that is
a work 

 ONLY God

 can do and it is all

 AMAZING and WORTH

 it.  

This kind of work is a

 LABOR OF LOVE!