Annette Ellard
CBF Field Personnel, Kentucky
As I have considered the many spiritual guides who have influenced me throughout my life, I have been most struck by the common thread of that influence—love. Love truly is the be-all and end-all. Without it, we are nothing. With it, we have everything.
When I was seven-years-old, my Sunday school teacher gave me a sticker. It said, “GOD LOVES YOU. I LOVE YOU.” It was so special to me, I stuck it inside the front of the Bible my grandparents had given me for Christmas. How amazing it was to know God loves me. That teacher never knew the profound influence that sticker had on me then and even now.
When I was 11, after my daddy died, my mother joined the army and I went to live with my grandparents while she was in training. During that time, Mama was given a New Testament with the bold-print title “GOD IS LOVE.” Mama let me have it after she finished her training, and the translation which is in common English became my primary Bible for reading in my early teens. The cover emphasized that Scripture passage from 1 John 4, and I thought deeply about how important it was—so important the publisher had used it to title the whole New Testament. Of course, that publisher never knew the profound influence that tattered paperback had on me then and even now.
In my early 20s, while in a seminary class on the classics of Christian devotion, I read The Practice of the Presence of God, the writings of Brother Lawrence, a 17th century French Carmelite friar. After a childhood of poverty and an early adulthood of war that left him permanently lame, Brother Lawrence entered the priory as a lay brother and spent the rest of his life working first in the kitchen and later by repairing sandals. In all that I encountered in that seminary course, it is one statement by Brother Lawrence that has stuck with me ever since: “I flip my little egg in the frying pan for the love of God.” The thought that everything we do in life should be for the love of God was at once astoundingly simple and relentlessly demanding. Such a humble man as Brother Lawrence surely never imagined that, more than 300 years after his death, his writings would have such lasting influence on a 20th century seminarian and then and missionary even now.
Finally, in my later 20s, when I was struggling with several decisions, I sought the help of a trusted counselor. Realizing I was paralyzed by the fear of making the wrong choice, she suggested that I stop trying to determine what was “the right thing” or “the wrong thing” and instead choose “the loving thing.” I only saw her a couple of times after that meeting, so she never knew how much she helped me with those decisions then or how her wisdom has guided much of my decision-making for more than half my life, even until now.
Now, 17 years into our ministry among refugees from Burma, Steve and I hope that love is the essence of all we do. And we pray that those we serve will come to know that we love them and that God loves them. We pray that they will know that God is love, fully shown among us in Jesus. We pray that we will not grow weary, even in doing the seemingly small but necessary things, if we do them for the love of God. And we pray that the love with which our work is done will be evident to those we serve so that they will love God more.