No Greater Love

" As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. I have told you this, so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. This is my command: Love each other." [ John 15: 9-16].

Love is a strange thing. We think it is not supposed to feel like sacrifice, or even work. Work, obedience, sacrifice are not very fashionable these days.

We want Love to be a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, a hug, a smile. Sometimes, those are all that is needed.

But for Jesus, Love was the ultimate sacrifice-- His very life was given, to save us mortal souls, to pave our own way to Heaven, if only we can love as He did.

Is this even humanly possible, to love unto death as Jesus did? After all, we are only human. And yet, I have witnessed extraordinary human beings in recent history, making ultimate sacrifices:

In the United States, Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for civil rights around the country and paid for his life. He said: "If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don't want a long funeral. I'd like somebody to mention [on that] day, that Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to love somebody. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your side, in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others. so that we can make of this old world a new world."

In South Africa, Bishop Desmond Tutu resisted the laws of apartheid. He believed and lived the Scripture in Acts 10:34, where Peter says " I now realize how true it is that God does not show partiality but accepts people from every nation who fear him and do what is right." Bishop Tutu is credited with saying that 'The first mistake they made (whites) was that they gave us the Bible.' Why? -- because in the Bible is God and God is Love and Truth.

Also in South Africa, Nelson Mandela fought against apartheid and spent 26 years in prison. He could have been released sooner if only he had compromised his position. But he refused.

I wonder, could I possibly make such a huge sacrifice for Love?

And yet, on a much smaller scale, I did. I think of the painful and complex relationship that I had with my mother. She was insensitive at best, at times even cruel. But on the day my father died abruptly, all the years of love-hate crises between my mother and me melted away. I ran to my mother's side. A few short months later, she moved near me and I cared for her until she died.

Or, I think of my best friend who died of cancer. I spent countless hours, during her two year battle against the disease, organizing teams to carpool, to donate meals, to make library runs, to take her to chemo etc. At times, this involved time away from my own family, as my husband pitched in at home. I would not have had it any other way. In fact, my husband would tell me, 'Go to her! We are fine here.'

These were years of sacrifice out of my life. Somehow, I felt honored to be asked, though. Someone trusted me enough to ask me to love deeply. I stepped up my efforts at ministering, at loving. I was being obedient. But it felt like joy--  even though, in both cases, my loved one lost her life.

Am I superhuman or even a saint, to have taken my mother back after all those years of trauma? Am I to be placed upon a pedestal to have cared for my mother, at the same time as I organized the daily affairs of my seriously ill friend? I would only say what Peter says in Acts 10: 24, while he was visiting Cornelius. At Peter's entry into his house, Cornelius "fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up. 'Stand up', he said, 'I am only human, as you are.' "   I do not want anyone's reverence or worship. I do what I do out of Love, as a human who struggles just as you do.

We are all asked to make sacrifices, big and small, for the sake of Love. These days, I am taking care of my young son. Each weekday, I wake up at dawn, fix myself my first cup of coffee, then wake my son for school. It IS a sacrifice. I do not want to get up at 6:30 a.m.! But this daily ritual feels like Love.  It feels like Joy.

Jesus, in loving others as You have commanded, may the joy that I find in You be complete!

(c) The Spiritual Devotional 2012. All Rights Reserved.