By Larry Banta
It was the last stop of that long Christmas day. It started about 3 a.m. and now it was about 8 p.m. I had preached Christmas messages in several villages in southern India earlier in the day and now finally I was at my last stop. We parked the Jeep and entered into the humble dwelling. This was a special village. All those living there were suffering from leprosy and this had caused some rather severe deformities in the people.
I was at first taken aback, not sure how to respond, but the love shown toward us as we entered overcame any doubts that I had about joining them. I preached a short message about the meaning of Christmas and Jesus’ humble beginnings. We shared communion with them. Deformed hands with missing fingers, some with no fingers at all, reached for the communion elements, which we helped them with. These people were truly rejected by society but fully accepted in God’s Kingdom. The love the missionaries and local pastors showed for these folks was powerful and transforming. I was impressed by this and wanted to emulate this type of love: loving those whom the world had rejected.
Over the years in work/ministry I was led into opportunities to work in orphan care, foster, and adoptive care. I also served those with severe persistent mental illness, as well as many with incurable neurologic illness. My mission statement gradually became: To serve Jesus by reaching out to the rejected and abandoned of this world, showing them God’s love and mercy.
1 John 4:7-8 says: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
In past articles we have considered joy and peace. Now let’s consider this powerful transforming love, another part of the gift of the Holy Spirit we see in Galatians 5:22. Those of the world tend to love those who love them and tend to ignore or hate the others. God’s love goes above and beyond, even as far as loving one’s enemies and pursuing the ones the world ignores.
God first demonstrated this kind of love as shown in 1 John 4:9: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Let’s take a look at some ways that this powerful love has transformed lives. Though there are so many examples and stories, there remains a great need to reach out to these unreached people groups.
One important outreach is care of orphans and abandoned children. They come into care timid, full of anger, fear, and defensive from the trauma and separation from parents. They were not even thought of as human as they lived on the street; no one cared about them. It takes a while but soon many of these damaged souls respond to the active love and care given to them in a Christ-centered orphanage. The ones who express this love are the caregivers who, at great emotional and personal cost, love these children even though treated hatefully by them.
The children gradually respond by attaching to the caregivers, gaining confidence, learning to play and to be what children need to be. They have the opportunity, after seeing God’s love in action, to accept His love and forgiveness. In my experience, some as adults return and give back to the home by becoming caregivers themselves. I was privileged to watch this transformation in countless children over the years; I could see it was only God’s power and love in those homes that made the difference in them.
Another area which is often neglected is the severely and chronically mentally ill. Many states have stopped providing adequate care for them so they end up wandering the streets. They end up in jails, nursing homes, prisons, and homeless shelters. Some of the more fortunate are able to get into a caring group living situation in which they can get the needed medications and help they need – and someone who actually cares for them. Most larger cities have a Christian city mission, working with the homeless, drug addicted, and mentally ill. We have the Boise Rescue Mission that started in 1958. The staff, motivated by love, deals with all kinds of bizarre and difficult behaviors. Using the available resources for medications, therapy, and addiction treatment, many of these lives are transformed by the power of love.
Stabilized on medication, many severely mentally ill are able to improve to the point that they can lead productive lives even if not able to work. One of my former patients, suffering from schizophrenia, spent much of his life working with churches to help them understand and deal with the severely mentally ill in their congregations. There are programs through Christian Medical and Dental Association (cmda.org) and the American Association of Christian Counselors (aacc.net) to assist congregations in meeting the special needs of those afflicted by these disorders of the brain. Though not suffering from leprosy, many feel as though they are. God’s love can change that!
God’s love is truly active and powerful. It reaches to the lowliest places on earth and to the high and mighty. It brings healing and forgiveness, transforming lives, giving meaning and purpose, creating disciples from even the deepest depths of darkness.
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16-19).
As Christians, we are to be known by our love: the incredible, powerful love that comes only from God. It is not just a feeling but it is active, transforming lives and cultures. This amazing power is available to us through the Holy Spirit as we put our trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40).
God’s power is manifested in the love demonstrated by His disciples. We must allow His great love to shine in our lives to transform us and those around us.
Dr. Larry Banta is an author of several books, a retired psychiatrist, and a former missionary. He served in India, Mexico and Kenya. He and his wife, Evelyn, a counselor, travel together to provide consultation and training in various international locations. A helpful resource for working with foster and adoptive children is “Help for the Hurting Child” by Dr. Banta and available on Amazon.
