Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18
“Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all. Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on the stage. But active love is labor and fortitude, and for some people too, perhaps, a complete science.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) The Brothers Karamazov (Project Gutenberg ebook, 2009).
The Brothers Karamazov is another one from the list in 25 Books Every Christian Should Read: A Guide to the Essential Spiritual Classics.
Read this closely as you think about your generosity this year end. Don’t support efforts that show “love in dreams” with your giving.
This comes into view as ministries that promise results in short order. On the international level, they tend to ask you for funding and promise to deliver certain outcomes.
They are, in Dostoevsky’s language “greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed.” Give us money and we can get it over with right away.
Alternatively, the long hard road paved with “labor and fortitude” which addresses not just symptoms but the deeper problems is active love.
This love in action really is “harsh and dreadful.” Think of the Christ of Christmas. He came and showed love in action and gave His life. He calls us to die to self too.
So this Christmas I urge you to support your local church and ministries that show love in action by addressing real issues over the long haul.
And with your international giving, give to GTP. As many ministries that work globally have large numbers of American staff, I am the only one.
Our team is from the world and serves the world with love in action. We don’t give handouts that create dependency but a hand up that builds disciples.
And we do this living and serving in Australia, Egypt, Guatemala, Hong Kong (soon relocating to Canada), Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa, and USA.
In addition to the 10 staff we around 50 volunteers that serve as board members and that help deliver program for a network of 5,600 Christian workers in 110 countries.
We show love in action with labor and fortitude. Watch Palmful of Maize to see how we have empowered national workers to build trust and grow local giving in Malawi.
Give generously, always combining actions with truth.