Loving in secret

I thought long and hard about how I was going to show love today. I knew that I was going to be out most of the day running errands and interacting with different people, so I knew that I would have plenty of opportunities to love, but I just didn't know how... so I woke up and prayed about it; I left the house and prayed about it; I walked down the streets of Hong Kong and prayed about it, but somehow, I still was at a loss for what to do.

So, I went about my day, doing all the "typical" acts of love; acts that were visible and very apparent to others. I gave up my seat to a lady holding her toddler on the subway, I helped an old man pick up his cane that he dropped on the ground, I helped out a student trying to raise money for Unicef, I chatted up a client and a sales person to give them some encouragement given the tough jobs that they have... but somehow, all these acts didn't really make me feel like I was really "loving" them at all. I felt like I was just going through the motions...

Until, I noticed two kids on the subway. These 2 middle school boys were on their way home from soccer practice. I could tell that they were really good friends; they joked and they laughed, and their friendship really warmed my heart. So I decided to pray for them. I prayed that God would open their hearts so that they would know Him. I prayed that God will protect and grow their friendship, so that it continues until they both old and well weathered in life. I prayed that they would be the Nathan to David in each others' lives and not only support one another, but point out faults in each others' lives so that they can grow in character and in Truth. I prayed that God would bless their family, and their parents.

Of course they didn't know that I did this, and if they did, they probably would have thought that I was some weird-o. (Perhaps you are now thinking that too. :P) But praying for them made me really joyful, because we really need more of these true friendships on earth. It also made me feel joyful knowing that I can love without any outward physical actions to show others that I did such and such. (Well ironically, I guess now you know about it, since I'm blogging about it!) But it's love like this - love that is behind the scenes, that I may or may not know the "ending" of, that has a mysteriously warm feeling about it. I pray that we would live in this way - humbly loving others.

Love challenge: Love in a way that warms the heart, but that other people may never find out about!

"[Love] does not boast."

Showing love on the bus

I was running a bit late to work this morning, and of course, that made me even jumpier
than normal. So when I saw a line for the bus this morning, the Mainlander in me wanted to jump the quasi-queue, and revert to beating everyone to the door of the bus to make sure that I could get on... before everyone else. (Yes, I'm shameless when I'm running late and need to get somewhere!)

However, just as I was going to do so, I saw a mom with her toddler out of the corner of my eye hurrying over to try to catch the bus. So, instead of jumping on and leaving them behind, I waited by the bus door, stepped aside, and let them go ahead of me onto the bus. She graciously thanked me, though in retrospect, I think that I should thank HER for helping me to do my act of love for the day.

After that, I thought that was pretty much all the love I was going to show on the bus ride, but little did I know that God had another little incident in store. Since I was the last to get on the bus, I was standing pretty much right next to the bus door. And man, this morning, the bus was PACKED. Now it wasn't as packed as this:

but it was still pretty squishy. Unfortunately, at one of the bus stops, after everyone else had gotten off, and the bus was ready to take off, we heard a little shout all the way in the back from someone struggling to get off. It literally took the person a whole minute to get from the back of the bus, all the way to the door, at which point, people around her where tisking away and quite annoyed that she was holding them up. Apparently, it was a middle school girl who was trying to get off, and why it was taking so long was because she had on one of the biggest backpacks I had ever seen. (I think she was going camping.) But in addition to that, she was carrying 2 large bags holding tents too.

Poor girl, as she was struggling to squeeze through the throngs of people with her huge bags, I could see that she was very much struggling, but also very much embarrassed. That scene really took me back to my high school days when I used to go on overnight weekend hikes, and I felt really burdened to help her, so I literally had to "pull" her and the bags she was carrying through the crowd of people. Although I wasn't able to make eye-contact with her to give her an encouraging smile (she was trying to hide as much as she could under her cap at this point), but she thanked me profusely as she was getting off. I also said a silent prayer for God to protect her on her hike as the bus zoomed off.

Love challenge: Extend a helping hand to those in need... in big and small ways!

"Love is patient, love is kind"