The subject of love, especially in these pandemic times, is the single, most important, topic for us, as human beings, and especially as Christians, to talk about, study, discuss and most critically, put into practice in our lives. I find that many of my Christian friends want to ignore or minimize the impact of the pandemic, at least until they personally experience its effect. After all, God is in control, right? And God works together all things for the good of those who love him, right? So, God must be using this virus to teach humanity a lesson and help them see their need for salvation, right? Yet, it my experience and observation that everyone is being impacted, including your spouse, children, parents and closest friends.
I don’t care what your theology tells you about how to spiritually interpret the pandemic. The reality is that all people, including the people you know best, are being intensely challenged, and many are suffering, physically, emotionally, financially, and/or spiritually. What we need in the world right now is a whole lotta love for our fellow humans. This love can begin with those we care about the most and it will ripple out to everyone with whom we have the opportunity to interact and thus impact with acts of unconditional love, as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians.
But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
[1 Corinthians 12:31–13:8a]
So, did you actually read the above passage? If not, I urge you to go back and read it slowly and emphatically.
There are lots of things that we can’t do to counter the impact of the pandemic, but there is one thing we can all do, even if we’re not scientists, front line workers, or health care professionals. We can love the people with whom we interact on a consistent basis. Imagine what it would be like to have people in each of our lives who act toward us consistently with patience, kindness, generosity, humility, encouragement, calmness and true forgiveness. This kind of love demonstrated in word and deed, help us all to bear, believe, hope and endure all things. This kind of love simply does not fail.
No one of us can love to the whole world. We can SAY that we love the world and mean it, but in reality, we can’t demonstrate love to the 7.8 billion people. But what we can do is to show love to those people who are in our worlds. In fact, that is exactly how we show that we love humanity; by loving the humans that are in our immediate sphere of influence, right now.
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
[1 John 3:16–18]
What is it that keeps us from loving those closest to us, in this way? Pride, self-righteousness, unforgiven wrongs, unresolved hurts, fear, selfishness, etc. Honestly, it is often easier to show more patience, kindness, generosity, humility, etc., to those with whom we have minimal contact. We know our family and friends better, which means we know their flaws, faults, and foibles, and they know us. So, in our pride and hurt, we can even feel justified in holding back from unconditionally and consistently loving.
It is my conviction that love must begin at home! In passages such as Ephesians 5 & 6 and Colossians 3 & 4, the early Christians were given specific direction on how to love those who are in their lives on a day-to-day basis. I think it is hypocritical of us to be more patient, more kind, more forgiving, more trusting of people we barely know or don’t know than we are towards our spouses, children, other family and close friends.
Consistently and unconditionally loving those with whom we are closest is, at times, really hard and calls for a level of selflessness that can be really difficult to practice. But that’s why it is so powerful, so impacting, and so inspiring. It is what the world needs to see. It is what Jesus said would identify to all people those who are his disciples.
In 1971, John Lennon recorded a song, “Imagine,” which the magazine “Rolling Stone” rated as the #3 greatest song of all time. In it Lennon imagines a world where there is global peace, equality and brotherhood. He ends the song with these words, “You might say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will live as one.”
I want to invite you to imagine a slightly different world. It is one in which every person who follows Jesus as Lord make loving others the number one priority of daily life. Now imagine, not just one drop causing localized ripples but millions of drops causing tens of millions of ripples of love, 24/7/365 all over the world. Imagine what the cumulative and ongoing impact would be on the world! Like a Rainstorm on a pond.
And it starts as each one of us grows in expressing love to those with whom we have the closest relationships.
I read an inspiring and practical article this week titled, People Grow into the Finest Version of Themselves When They are Loved without an Agenda. So, let’s help those with whom we are closest to grow into the finest version of themselves; let us love them consistently and unconditionally in deed and in truth and let us imagine what God can do in us and through us.
Here is a prayer that I think is worth praying consistently…
Dear God, who is Love, I commit today that I will not major in the minors of Christian faith, but I will listen to, and keep in step with the Holy Spirit so that the Spirit might inspire, motivate, challenge, call, and empower me to life a life of love, just as Christ loved me and gave himself up for me. And may that love ripple out from my closest relationships to touch all those with whom I interact today. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment