By the third day in Korea, I was getting sick of people. I don’t mean that they were doing anything to grate me. I didn’t even know any of them! But I was getting tired of being around so many people. Everywhere I went – the subway, the buses, restaurants, and even just walking down the street in the middle of the day, there were people everywhere! Perhaps, my mind was shutting down because it was being overloaded with presence of so many people.

I was ready to resign myself to never wanting to go back to Korea again. Then my uncle took me away to the mountains and the sea for a day. The pressure valve opened up and I felt a lot more at home. Perhaps because It reminded me of the Northwest. And then on my way back, I got to thinking: These are the people whom God loves. Even though I’d never see or know any of these people ever again, they are the ones that God gave His Son to die for. Even a drunk old man shouting something aloud helped by his younger co-worker wee hours into the weeknight is loved by God….

It is easy to “love” everyone. It’s hard to love a particular person. It is easy to go on mission trips to with an idea to “love” people that we have never met. But when it comes to actually loving difficult people around us, it becomes hard. As long as love is an idea, it is easy. But it becomes difficult or even impossible when it has to be practical.

The world is large and there are many many people in it. But God didn’t tell us to love everyone. He told us to love “one another.” John 13:34. That means loving practically those around us. That means God has placed certain people around us, or placed us around certain people to love. That could be your family, your co-workers, classmates, and certainly your church.

Do not focus on loving everyone. Focus on loving the specific people around you. Stay committed to them. Put their needs before yours. Be there day in and day out. Do the hard thing!

PH