Over the past year, I wrote a children's book for the first time. I was writing a script for a short film and a children's book was apart of the film. At first, I thought a prop would do. Then, naive as I was, I decided to write the book instead. Easy enough, right? Surprise surprise, it wasn't. But I loved it. Teaming up with an illustrator who shared the same vision was a joy. The whole process was like unlocking new drawers in a hidden closet. The entirety of the book correlates with the film. Love and sacrifice.
How can one love and yet not sacrifice? I'll save you some time, you can't. Ask any married couple. Scratch that. Listen to any married couple. Spend time in their midst and you will find that loving another rightly is a selfless journey. And like many concepts, this is true across the board, not just marriage. As a single guy, I find selfish patterns in my life spring up without notice like weeds among the garden. Let me put it this way. You will always see yourself in the reflection of a mirror. Thus modeling your life off what you see. Yet when you surround yourself with community, a diverse community I might add, you begin to see new weeds springing up in your life.
I eat when I want. I sleep when I want. I watch TV when and what I want. The list goes on. I'm not saying a lifestyle as such is a hindrance to any respectable living. What I am saying is that maybe we should question our selfishness more.
Being Relational requires sacrifice. But to sacrifice, you have to love. Have you ever met an obedient spouse who followed every command their other half gave but never showed love or affection? Or a friend who did everything at your beckoning call but never cared about you as a person emotionally? I hope we both would agree that this is no healthy state for any human of any culture. Being relational requires love as a foundational component. That may be easy for family or friends depending on your circle, but what about strangers who you don't know from Adam (Not me but the biblical Adam...you know the phrase).
The bible states in 1 John chapter 4 that God is love. Yes He loves us, but He Himself is the embodiment of perfect love. He also calls us to love him as an invitation into an authentic relationship with Him. Not one based out of solely obedience, but out of love. When we discover just a foretaste of God's abiding love towards us, we discover what being relational is truly all about. God, through Jesus, becomes attractive to us. We discover His truth and mysteries and long for more. Furthermore, we begin to see that we are all made in His image. Therefore, to truly love a stranger is not merely an action with no ripple effects, but one of far reaching implications. For we are not just loving another person, we are loving God in tandem.
Does it take sacrifice to live a life of love? You bet your momma's homemade biscuits it does. It always does. But maybe that is the beauty. Human life is beautiful when you take time to pause and listen to another. Many times the stories one shares starts to wack away at those pesky selfish weeds. You are suddenly not seeing just your reflection and story, you are seeing another. A new perspective of an image bearer of God and how He is writing their story. And just maybe, how you can be apart of theirs.
I think that is why they call it the present. When we silence the habitual tick to see the screen, block out the surrounding cultural merry-go-round noises, and dust off the listening ears, we find this moment with others is truly a gift.
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