Love’s Dividend

I’ve met some amazing people in my lifetime, but only one Carolyn Switzer. In more than fifteen years of interacting with her in ministry, I cannot recall one instance of harshness or ill-temper. She was one of the most gracious and steady people I have ever met. She could talk about Jesus to anyone without it ever feeling artificial or forced. Carolyn was a gifted Bible teacher, but I think most people would say she simply loved them into the Kingdom. Getting close to Carolyn made you want to get closer to Jesus. 
 
It was not at all axiomatic that Carolyn should have turned out this way. Her life was marked with a series of staggering tragedies. Her six-year-old son died in her arms; her forty-year-old husband died unexpectedly of a brain hemorrhage at work. After raising three daughters as a single mother, Carolyn found love again later in life. Her and her second husband served as missionaries to Venezuela until he fell sick and rapidly succumbed to cancer. Carolyn’s latter years were plagued with constants bouts of pneumonia.
 
Carolyn’s infectious joy was wonderful, but it seemed extraordinary, even counterintuitive when you heard about her great suffering. Not all Christians are so beautifully formed through pain. I asked Carolyn about the absence of bitterness in her life and besides giving the glory to Christ, she told me an amazing story. When her first husband passed away, several Christian families banded together and completely assumed her home mortgage. She had struggles as a widowed mother, but she never had to worry about housing. She said God’s love was so real and proven in their actions, that it totally influenced her response to suffering. Carolyn repaid that loan for the rest of her life as she poured what she had received into countless other lives.
 
No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
1 John 4:12 (NLT)
 
 

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