CIVIL REVOLUTION: SERVE WITH LOVE

So beyond listening with humility and speaking in love, how do we practically love our neighbors in order to demonstrate that we believe there are “no mere mortals”? Foundationally, we need to comprehend and put into practice what Fred Rogers understood and lived out – the sacredness of the human transaction: “Whatever moment he was in with another person—even if it was in a letter or an email—that moment was sacred and all-encompassing, and the other person sensed that and internalized it.”* Can we imagine someone treating us like this – like we are the only one on the planet that the other person wants to be with at that moment, all other distractions ignored?

Now can we flip the script? How good are we at cutting out potential interruptions and focusing on the holy object before us – whether literally face-to-face, on the phone, or online? Do we seek to love well with every keystroke before we hit ‘enter’? Or are our virtual communications much like too many in-person ones where we’re thinking about what we want to say before ever comprehending what is important to our neighbor? Is that how you want to be treated? We all must remember that sacrificial love does not exist in the abstract. However, “the beauty and tragedy of the modern world is that it [usually] eliminates many situations that require people to demonstrate a commitment to the collective good.”** There is no better time than now to reach across the aisle. For, “To truly see the dignity of others and to truly love them meant that love would wage war against the evil that so terribly harmed them.”***

Video: DACA Recipient is a Teacher 


 Music: The Proof of Your Love 

 

The only way for this to become a reality is for us to “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”* It’s about becoming more selfless and less selfish through serving. This attitude has been found in multiple cultures throughout time and geography: “Few men could be considered good in the Arapaho Way; only those who were humble and generous, who placed others before themselves.”** 

The U. S. Coast Guard has this attitude to the nth degree, with their mottos, Always Ready and So Others May Live. “Humans are so strongly wired to help one another – and enjoy such enormous social benefits from doing so – that people regularly risk their lives for complete strangers.”*** Or as Albert Schweitzer said, “The only ones among you who will really be happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve. And the greatest person alive in the world at this moment is some unknown individual in some obscure place, who, at this hour, has gone in love to be with another person in need.”

Video: Generous Restauranteur 

Music: Never Let Go

 


 ___________________

*Shea Tuttle, Exactly As You Are, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2019, Location 1876 - Kindle

**Sebastian Junger, Tribe, New York, NY: Hachette Books, 2016, 59

***Eric Metaxas, 7 Women and the Secret of their Greatness, New York, NY: Thomas Nelson, 2016, 94

_________________

*Philippians 2:3-4

**Margaret Coel, The Lost Bird, New York, NY: Berkley Publishers, 2000, Location 565 - Kindle

***Sebastian Junger, Tribe, New York, NY: Hachette Books, 2016, 55

 

 

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