It is a Life of Love

I read a few pages from one of my favorite books last night, Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur by Frank L. Houghton. The author shared an excerpt from a pamphlet that Amy Carmichael gave to a group of single young women that she referred to as "The Sisters of the Common Life". It beautifully captures a philosophy of ministry that I constantly need to be reminded of-- love.

Let no least thought of unkindness move in me there. Let such a thought be impossible to me. Let it be intolerable. If I have given room to any least feeling of unlove, show me the seriousness of that sin. Break me down before Thy face because of it. . . We are trusted to spread the spirit of love. Tenderness in judgment, the habit of thinking the best of one another, unwillingness to believe evil, grief if we are forced to do so, eagerness to believe good, joy over one recovered from any slip or fall, unselfish gladness in another's joys, sorrow in another's sorrow, readiness to do anything to help another entirely irrespective of self-- all this and much more is included in that wonderful word love. If love weakens among us, if it ever becomes possible to tolerate the least shadow of an unloving thought, our Fellowship will begin to perish. Unlove is deadly. It is a cancer. It may kill slowly but it always kills in the end. Let us fear it, fear to give room to it as we would fear to nurse a cobra. . . If unlove be discovered anywhere, stop everything and put it right, if possible at once.