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        I have seen this self-giving love in old and young alike. Sometimes among the underprivileged I seem to have seen it with greater clarity than among the more privileged and sophisticated. Out of the many lives that come to my mind, with whom I have been associated in the spread of the gospel in many lands, I would like to mention some who have warmed my heart. There is the danger of excusing ourselves when we hear of giants of faith and of those who have found their way to abundant loving. We say we are "ordinary" and cannot produce as much as others. The fact is, all of these of whom I write were the most ordinary people and that is precisely why I mention them. Of course, the truth is that nobody is ordinary. Given scope, the Spirit shows His rich originality in each life. God is full of variety in nature, and grace, going beyond nature, exhibits still more of that variety.
        Len was eighteen years old when I met him. He was a lad without any polish, brought up in the slums of an English industrial city. He was working in a dye factory with no prospects for a full and rounded life. But Christ had found him and there was no mistaking the glow and joy of this new life in Len. World War II came and he was drafted into the forces to be moved from one theater of war to another, until he was finally taken prisoner when Greece was overrun by the Nazis. Taken to a prison camp in northern Germany, Len settled down to life there for two years, after which he was given repatriation in one of the exchanges of  prisoners that was made with Germany. To our surprise, he elected to remain in prison camp. Very soon we had letters which told the story. Men were coming to Christ in the camp and life was getting exciting. The small group of Christians met for prayer and study and specially to get from God the strategy for winning other men . After two and a half years more, at the end of the war, Len was able to tell us of fifty men who had found Christ during that time and now were entering training as missionaries, ministers, or returning  to their jobs to be new men and to renew others. A living church had been born within the camp because a young man stepped aside from his personal rights and desires and saw God's place for him to "lay down his life" ( 1 John 3 :16). He had no special training, but love is always creative and reproductive. "I count not my life dear unto me," said Paul. This is the abundance in which we all share.
        In an industrial area of northern England, a widow with very little on which to live was shocked one day by her only son's announcement that he felt called to go to Africa as a missionary. She had been  a Christian since childhood and a very ardent believer, but a cloud shadowed her life at this news, for she rather naturally thought this boy would be near her and a comfort in her advancing years. One day while having her Scripture reading and prayer, she came to the passage in John that was extremely familiar,   "For God so loved the world that He gave of His only begotten Son . . . ." Suddenly the words stood out "only begotten," and she simply saw in a flash that God was giving her the privilege of doing in her small way what He had done. Upon acceptance of this new outlook the sun shone with renewed radiance and she became a real producer. The son saw a new mother when he came home and they were able together to feel themselves as partners in this venture of love and faith.
        Later, while relating this experience to a friend, she said she was so filled with joy that had she eight children to give, she would not have held one back from leaving her to live and preach in other lands.
        Her exuberance attracted some young people who came to her humble home and formed a group to pray for her son and the work to which he was going. After a few years, with this prayer meeting flourishing, this friend to whom she had spoken came back to town. In conversation they went over the results of the prayer fellowship. They counted-- yes, eight young people who had gone out into various areas of the world as missionaries from that group. God had given her the eight children of whom she had so lightly spoken. She had forgotten, but the friend had not. Love which entails sacrifice or the giving up of our rights, produces abundant joy and erases the sense of sacrifice. It is swallowed up in the adventure. That son is still in Africa and is now a fine leader in charge of a large area with many missionaries on the staff.
        I met a couple with two grown sons in business together, but still living at home. The parents both teach school. I attended a prayer fellowship in their home which was started because they had met some of our missionaries on an ocean voyage and felt drawn to pray for them and others they knew. Never were a couple more busy, yet never were a couple so at leisure and restful in what they did. It intrigued me and still does. When some missionaries in a distant land needed a home for a child of theirs who was badly deformed from birth and needing special care, this couple phoned across three thousand miles to ask if they could have the privilege of taking the child into their home. At this time the lady let slip to me that she taught school for the sole purpose of putting every penny of her monthly salary into missionary enterprises. This couple had just been disappointed about having some state supported, handicapped children in their home, by which means they would have had more money to give to their missionary interests. This special need thus came at a time when they were open for a further venture, even without any payment involved. We now await the outcome of their kind offer. This is a simple but telling case of love in action, of people going beyond reasonable limits to feed others by their own lives.
        It is too bad if these stories should make anyone feel they are rather short on love. They are told in order to bring into bold relief the limitlessness of the love of God shed abroad in the heart of each one of us. In genuine thankfulness and praise to God for His love expressed in others, our own love increases. We need to affirm our being as rooted in love, and to ask that ways may be opened to us to express this. We need above all to steer clear of asking God to give us love, for that is unbelief. We must not indulge ourselves m the feeling of "not having" when He has given us Himself. Exciting things happen and opportunities open as we affirm His life in us. "As Christ is so are we in this world." This is so and has nothing to do with our feeling it so, or with appearances to the contrary.
        We now move into the matter of closing the gap between self and others, the realization of unity with each other in the same way that we have come to realize the unity of Christ with self.
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(1) Whittle, John.  man ALIVE - P.O. Box 2877, Glen Ellyn, IL 60138, Union Life Ministries