Accountable to Love

The year is 19__ and I specifically remember Phoebe Jones (she has given me permission to tell her story – so here goes). Phoebe was a young girl who moved to our neighborhood with her parents by way of Baltimore, Maryland. Phoebe was bright skinned with long hair and a smile a mile long. She wore the nicest clothes, had the prettiest hair braids, and always seemed to be quite content in not playing with the rest of us kids who longed to get dirty in the hot summer weather or the Georgia snow. Oftentimes I would wonder, “How could someone stay so clean all day!” Unlike Phoebe - for me, my only concern was catching dragon flies or playing on the swing after church on weekends. I longed to be like her, have the long hair, be fair skinned, and have my parents stare at me the way her parents stared at her with GREAT content. Sometimes I would catch her mother looking at her as if she had a wonderful masterpiece in the making and it was just.......perfect. This left children in our neighborhood green with jealously and left Phoebe most times playing alone. But in all cases of perfection there lies a flaw though cannot be seen by the naked eye - can be detected sooner or later. Many times the kids would alienate themselves from Phoebe because she seemed too “perfect” leaving me to interact with her. It was during this interaction and friendship that I learned no matter what age we are in life we are all tasked with something to do. At that moment, at that time, in my life I was accountable to LOVE. Sounds simple perhaps trivial but necessary for that time. I wasn’t sure what was happening in her home but what I was sure of is that this young girl was missing something. And though we were very young the Lord had me there to comfort her, to share with her, to wipe the tears from her eyes when I wasn’t really sure what she was crying about. She stayed in our neighborhood for 3 years and one day her family abruptly moved and I never saw her again until years later. It wasn’t until 25 years later that I learned of her father who was molesting her and had been for several years. From that abuse she conceived and had a baby which caused her to suffer mental strain and stress for years. As adults we are still friends and this morning we had the opportunity to talk about our childhood. It was during this conversation she thanked me for loving her as a friend. My question is, “Can we love people when we don’t know what is wrong?” What about when it seems like everything is ok and they don’t need love…… is love still necessary? The answer is: YES! I would like to challenge each of us to be accountable to love without reservation. The scripture says in Romans 12:9 says, “Let love be without dissimulation.” Dissimulation means to love without concealment of one's thoughts, feelings, character or pretense. This means you don’t have to think about whether you should love someone you just do. Romans 5:6 says, “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Can imagine life without Christ love? Can you imagine if everything we did the Lord questions as to whether he would love and cover us? Some of us were without strength, without dignity, and without honor in our own families we were less than and called black sheep of the family. But the Lord RESTORED us – that was LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May I implore each of us to be accountable for more than ourselves………………………

Minister Erica Faison