¿Qué Te Gustaría Compartir Con el Amor?

           Kids say the darndest things, I guess. To be honest, I don’t really know what that means but I do know that kids can say some crazy stuff, even in other countries.

            I was in Colombia recently and had the amazing opportunity to be a part of several different school assemblies where in three day 5,000 kids were reached. I was Jiggles the clown, the tallest most awkward gringo these kids had ever seen complete with curly rainbow ‘fro and face paint. Apparently kids overseas aren’t as terrified of clowns as kids in the States are.

            At one of these assemblies, we had over a hundred elementary school kids staring at us in the main courtyard of the school and our translator lines us up and asks the kids if they have any questions for us Americans. We were expecting them to ask if we knew Hannah Montana, lived in mansions or ate cheeseburgers everyday but one girl with about three teeth in her whole mouth caught us really off guard.

            The first question we got from any of these kids was “¿qué te gustaría compartir con el amor?”

            Our translator asked again, then again, and finally asked a teacher near the girl what she said just to confirm that he heard her right. He turned and looked at us with a confused face and said “she asked what you would like to share with love?”

            What would you like to share with love?

            What an incredible question. We had no idea how to answer that or even what she meant by it but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.

            What would I like to share with love?

            That is really the only question I should be asking myself when I wake up in the morning. It’s not about what I have to do or what is expected of me. It is not about making sure I don’t mess up God’s plan for my life or miss any opportunities. It is all about what I would like to share with love.

            I get to decide the difference I make in the world. I get to decide the impact I have on the people around me. This girl just wanted to know if there was any love inside of us worth sharing with her and her friends, and if we wouldn’t mind letting it out. She knew that was more important than anything else we could tell them.

            I have to keep asking myself this question. Everywhere I go there are people who need the love I’ve found but do I want to share it with them? Of course if we were asked if we wanted the whole world to know this love we would say yes but do we do anything about it? Nobody has to force us to do the things we like to do but if I like to share love why don’t I?  Would I like to change the world today?

            I need to want to share love more than I want to have a good day. I want to plan my life around sharing love not doing my own thing.

             I want every decision I make to hinge on how much love I get to share while doing it. I am in a stage of my life where everything is about planning for the future and making the right decisions that will affect the life I end up living. Everybody always talks about a five year plan and career choices. I have absolutely no idea where I will be in five years but I know that wherever it is, I want to be sharing love.

            I talked to a man the other day in Louisville, Kentucky who couldn’t fathom why I would give up even a year to leave everything and follow God around the country with no pay and very little of what the world would call benefits, much less giving my whole life to this cause. He couldn’t grasp that there was the possibility of a life bigger than having a wife and kids and the occasional weekend barbeque with friends. I told him that there was nothing wrong with any of that but that I just wanted more.

            The God who created the Universe is offering to take our dismal existences and let us be a part of something that changes eternity. It isn’t about what job you work or what house you live in but if you are making a difference in the lives of the people you are doing life with. You don’t have to accept this offer, but God wants to know if you would like to. The “call of God” is not some hideous burden of a request that we are forced to follow, but simply an opportunity to be bigger than you ever could be on your own. The truth is, when we share love with the world around us, God shares His love with us.

            It’s not hard. Sharing love just means asking someone how they are doing and caring how they are actually doing. It means scheduling time to be a blessing to someone else. For me it means talking to strangers more, like gas station owners and tired waitresses who just need someone to make them laugh. Awhile ago I asked God what my place in society was. I wanted to know who I was supposed to be when I walked into a room. Was I the life of the party or the one people forgot was there? Was I the one that was the center of attention or the fly on the wall? God just told me that I was supposed to be the one who loves.

            To be honest I still haven’t figured out what that means but I am learning. I want my life to reflect the love that has been given to me. I want the world I keep praying for to see that I love them. I want to embody the love of Christ, not because I have to, but simply because the offer has been presented to me to do so and I would like to. I would like to share something with love.