Learning to Love

My heart has been stretched of late. I have been asking God for sometime to teach me how to really love people. I don´t mean the ´whats in it for me´ kind of loving people. I am talking of really loving people. Finding out their needs, their desires, their wants. Finding out who they really are. Not the person on the surface but the person deep in side that they don´t show to just any one. This type of love requires patience and time. More importantly it requires trust. I am learning that without trust the deeper levels of love just never seem to come. So with patience, time and trust I have begin to love those around me. The stretching part for me comes in the form of vulnerability. When you really love someone, you can get hurt. They might hurt you if you let them in. I have come to the realization that for so many years I have kept people at arms length. I think mostly out of a fear of getting hurt. I have started to let people in to the real me. It is scary and I know I can get hurt but the up side is the being loved and the loving is so much better and more fulfilling. This year we meet two American teenagers who were here training in Iceland. They quickly became part of our community and a big part of our hearts. Loving them was easy and letting them into our lives even easier. But now the down side of really loving them is the sadness of seeing them go. The up side though is sending them away knowing that there was a real connection, that will last a life time. And a knowledge that I am a better man for letting others love me and for truly loving them. I am thankful for the relationships that are beginning to grow here in Iceland. We stopped trying to grow some ministry and just started getting to know people and love on them and start a community. The relationships are incredible and this community of friends is becoming family and I am excited by what the future holds for us here.