We hurried after him in order to keep up. He didn’t seem to mind the mud puddles on the soot-covered ground, but we tried dodging and avoiding them as best we could. “The snow turns black here the next day”, the locals told us. If we had known where we were going, we’d have left our white scarves and mittens elsewhere. But who knew that the air in this city was thick with coal and that trees and buildings looked like they’d been spray-painted black?

But that wasn’t important. We hurried after the global worker as he led us to the nursing home. He excitedly told us of the doors God had opened in the hospital and nursing home and social services; there were open doors for the gospel every week as needy people received food for their stomachs and souls. We entered and followed as he went from room to room, hugging and feeding and praying over every one of them. Their smiles were broad and their eyes were wide as the sounds of singing and laughter filled the rooms. 

Right then and there, God spoke to me. It didn’t take any seminary knowledge to walk up to and hug a hurting grandmother who lost all of her children. It didn’t take years of study to pray over the blind woman whose voice expressed sincere gratitude as tears rolled down her face. And it didn’t take much training to spoon-feed the old man who couldn't lift his arms or afford such goods. 

But it did take something. It took this man with a past who’d been transformed by Christ to open his heart and allow Him to love through it.  

“Let all that you do be done with love.” 1 Corinthians 16:14

And that dark, cold building with soot-covered windows in a war-stricken area became a place of worship as prayers and songs were lifted up to the One who loves in the darkest times, the One who changes hearts and transforms lives, and the One who calls us to do the same. 

Because, truth is, talking about love is much easier than showing it, but what the world really needs is Christians who practice what they preach.