When I first registered the Belovedology web domain name, I did not pay extra for domain privacy which masks my name and phone number. First, I don’t care who knows, but mainly as my wife says, I’m just cheap. As a result, I got a lot of phone calls from web development companies in India, China, and the Philippines offering to build my website. We’re talking five or ten calls per day. At first I was annoyed, and I even got rude with one of them telling them to stop calling.
Then I realized, they were calling me, from around the world, long-distance on their dime, so I could make the best of it. A few hours later the phone rang and sure enough, a lady named Anu in India offered to build my website. She asked what I wanted to sell or do with my website. I told her that I just want to use it to tell people that God loves them. I asked if she knew that God loves her, Anu, very much.
First, it stopped the sales pitch. She tried to get back on script, but then said she hoped that god loves her. I asked if there was anything good that I could pray for her. She said her mother was very sick, so I prayed a simple blessing for her mother and for her. No preaching. No proselytizing. No condemnation. Just me telling her that she is very loved and asking for a blessing for good things.
This pattern happened numerous times each day for several weeks. They always asked what I wanted to do with my website. I looked forward to the sales calls and wrote down their names so I could tell them that they are loved. They are loved by me and by God. There was a man in the Philippines facing depression. A man in India whose brother was very sick. A man in India who hoped for a good wife and a “love marriage” in a country of arranged marriages. Another lady was just trying to get through the week. They are each loved.
One young man I spoke with believed in many gods but quickly recognized Jesus because his sister believes in “that god”. Speaking love is only part of the story. There are times to speak the truth and do that with love. “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” Ephesians 4:15. I encouraged him to learn about Jesus from his sister to truly understand sacrificial love.
If nobody has told you, my reader, that you are loved today, I love you. God loves you. You are worthy of love. There is a popular bible verse that “God so loved the world…” It starts with God’s love. You are in that world, so you are loved.
Be blessed, and share a little love with someone today, even if it is on a sales call.
Allen