We went to a worship concert and came home with a new grandchild! I don't mean literally. I mean that we responded to a plea from Compassion International to sponsor a child. Her name is Noelie, and she lives in Burkina Faso, which used to be called Upper Volta. I can't believe that missionaries can give her necessities, health care, and education for less than the cost of my cable upgrade. But that is not what makes sponsoring her feel rewarding. It is the chance to be able to write to her and pray for her that makes it feel like she is part of our family. I have passed up opportunities to sponsor children before, so why now?
I mentioned in a previous post that listening to worship music helped me "abide" in Christ. I want to be a little more specific about it. I found a worship band that I liked, and, on a whim, I bought one of their concert movies on Amazon Instant Video. To be honest (and this post will be a string of honest admissions), it had a profound emotional effect on me. I bought two more, and found myself playing them over and over during the time I had to myself at home. The emotional effect on me did not diminish, which is strange, because I have always been suspicious of "emotionalism." Maybe it had to do with looking into the joy-filled faces of young people from many places around the world, and feeling, somehow, connected with them. I don't think the name of the band is important, because it might distract from the larger point. I took my wife to the concert that I mentioned earlier, to hear the same band. On the way home, she said to me, "Don't take this wrong, but I feel like I love you more, now." I didn't take it wrong. In fact, I knew exactly what she was talking about. I had felt the same thing as I was watching the worship videos, and actively participating, emotionally. So, at the concert, sponsoring the child had felt like a "no-brainer." In fact, we really felt like greedily snatching up all the sponsorship cards and keeping all the children for ourselves. When they told us we got a free CD with the sponsorship, it seemed almost wrong to take it. I hope you don't take this the wrong way. I do not believe we have achieved some spiritual plateau because of one small gift or one emotional experience. I am trying to convey a broader lesson: experiencing the love of God, increases our capacity to love, and it opens us up to change. 1 John 4 says, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us . . . if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us." Don't get the order wrong. It is not that we must love in order to prove God's love is in us. God's love for us comes first, and our love is nothing more than His love bearing fruit (which is essentially what "perfected" means here).
We are learning, from the relatively new science of neuroplasticity, that love releases powerful chemicals in our brains that, not only help us bond with our mates and our children, but also help us unlearn old patterns that might stand in the way of the bonding process. As children, our minds absorb ways of thinking, speaking and behaving, simply by being in the presence of our parents. I have heard younger adults say that they are too selfish to have children, and then change in an instant to make room in their hearts for their newborns. I remember being afraid that I wouldn't be able to love the next child the way I did the first or second one. Of course, that was never a problem! Lovers grow together. Outsiders notice subtle and not-so-subtle changes in their personalities, giving deeper meaning to the idea of two becoming one flesh. There is actually science to back up what intuition has told us, that love changes people. In short, God wired us for love. If the science interests you, and you write me a note, I can recommend some books and authors.
I cannot miss the application to my spiritual life, though, and I hope you see it, also. We try to fix ourselves. We try to fix the people around us. But, love, itself, is the change agent. And, since God is love, the presence of God is the power of God. Do you want to have your prayer answered? Fall in love with Jesus. He is already in love with you.