Living love
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. —Romans 12:9–13, NIV
The New International Version of the Bible—from which the rendering of the above text is drawn—gives this section a title: Love in Action.
Love in Action. It’s so much easier to talk about love than it is to love. Isn’t it?
Kevin was five, (almost six!), and Ryan was three, (almost four!). Mom was fixing them their favorite meal—pancakes. As they were eagerly waiting for the first pancake off the pan, they were arguing about whose it would be.
“Mine!”
“No! Mine!”
Back and forth it went. Mom realized that this was an ideal time for an important lesson. So she stopped, walked over to the table, and said to her two young boys, “Boys, if Jesus were here, he would say to his brother, ‘You take the first pancake.’”
Kevin immediately said to his little brother, “Ryan, you be Jesus!”
Love in Action.
It’s so much easier to talk about love than it is to love.
A woman was very frustrated that the man in the car in front of her was going so slowly. “What?! Does he think this is a Sunday afternoon at the park?!” And so she started tailgating him.
He didn’t like being tailgated, so when they came to the intersection, and the light had just turned yellow — leaving him ample time to get through — instead, he slammed on the brakes. She almost hit him.
And that made her really angry! Inside her own car, she was screaming and yelling and banging the wheel and flashing him certain hand signals! All until there was a knocking on her window, and she looked up to see a police officer. He motioned for her to roll her window down. She did.
“Ma’am, pull over.”
She did.
He asked for her paperwork — driver’s license, proof of insurance. She gave it to him.
He was gone to his car for a long time. Finally, he came back. He handed her paperwork back to her. Then he just looked at her for a bit. Finally, he said, “Ma’am, on the back of this car, there’s a fish decal. And there’s a bumper sticker advertising Vacation Bible School. And there’s another bumper sticker that says, ‘Follow me to church.’”
He looked at her for a long minute. “I thought this car was stolen!”
Love in Action. It’s so much easier to talk about love than it is to love.
In the above passage from the book of Romans, Paul’s words make the reality of love very specific. To love, according to Paul, we must cling to good things. Honor others above ourselves. Be patient in affliction. Practice hospitality. Share with others.
That is Love in Action.
The late preacher and writer Earl Palmer told about a pre-med undergrad at the University of California Berkley who became a Christian after a long journey through doubts and questions. As a student, he had been hit with a bout of the flu that kept him out of school for 10 days. During that critical absence from his organic chemistry class, a classmate who happened to be a Christian carefully collected all his missed lectures and assignments. Then the Christian friend took time from his own studies to help his friend catch up to the rest of the class.
Years later, the pre-med student, now a committed Christian, told Palmer, “You know that this just isn’t done, and I probably wouldn’t have done it, but he gave that help to me without any fanfare or complaints. I wanted to know what made this friend of mine act the way he did; I found myself asking him if I could go to church with him.” Palmer wrote, “I think the best tribute I ever heard concerning a Christian was the tribute spoken of this student. ‘I felt more alive when I was around this friend.’”
In all sincerity, that is Love in Action.
It may be time to stop talking love and to start living it.
—Randy Roberts, DMin, LMFT, is vice president for spiritual life and mission at Loma Linda University Health.
