I Care
A caring brother. A Good Samaritan. A Savior.
Taking care of others can be one of the highest joys in life, and also one of the heaviest responsibilities. Sometimes we might feel as if we're like a Styrofoam cup, filled with love and concern, but everyone who needs something from us is a pencil poking a hole in us and whatever we have to offer starts flowing out. Pretty soon we are giving so much care in every direction that we look like a lawn sprinkler showering the thirsty grass around us.
We get to the point of running dry and wonder if we have much left to give. Ever felt like that? If so, then here is the faucet that will open up the floodgates and fill you up, so that you can continue to care for, support and love others like God would have you do.
The call to be a caregiver includes roles like parents, spouses and siblings. It includes most job-related positions, many professions and certainly belonging to a Christian congregation. In short, if you are a Christian, God calls you to care. Just like the Good Samaritan.
But pass by someone who needs your help, without an excuse that God will accept? Throw off the covers and growl at your child for waking you up again? Pursue personal pleasures at the expense of supporting your spouse or children? Let your Christian friend make a mess of her life without any words of warning? Carry out your duties at church with the slightest disgust toward others for not doing what you think they should be doing, or not doing it they way you think they should be doing it? These aren't the actions and attitudes of loving caregivers. We’ve broken the Golden Rule. Since we have not "bestowed care" like God would have us, he should also "bestow punishment" on us like the caregivers he condemned in Jeremiah's day. Might he also replace us, like he replaced them? (Jeremiah 23:3)
Replace us he did, not as caregivers but as condemned sinners. Our Savior God sent our replacement and substitute, Jesus Christ, to be the perfect caregiver in our place.
Jesus gladly lost sleep to care for his disciples on a stormy sea. Jesus prayed even for those who hurt him, and provided for the needs of others even when his needs were greater (as he did on the cross with the dying thief and also by providing his mother a home with John). Jesus welcomed the little children even though his disciples thought he was too busy. Jesus showed compassion and concern even for those of different social classes and different cultures. His loving care is a wonderful example for us, but the blessing of it goes beyond that. He is “the Lord our righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23:6)
Our Savior's loving care not only shows us what loving care is, but saves us from the loving care we too often lack. His loving care is accepted by God as our loving care. His righteous obedience on this earth becomes ours by faith, and is the righteous obedience that qualifies us for heaven! As much as the thief on the cross committed indecent and violent crimes with a lack of love for others, his lack of love was filled up by Jesus' love toward him and others. The thief repented, and he died as perfect and holy in God's eyes as Jesus died. The same is true for you and me, except we now have a life to live in obedience to our Savior, and in loving care for others. Repent and live! Repent and love!
In his autobiography, Booker T. Washington recalled an incident of this kind of love. He said the shirts he and other plantation slaves wore were made of a rough, bristly, inexpensive flax fiber. As a young boy slave, the garment was so abrasive to his skin that it scraped him, made him bleed and caused a great deal of pain. His older brother, with loving care, would wear Booker's new shirts until they were broken in and smoother to the skin. "Carry each other's burdens," our compassionate God urges us, "and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).
PRAYER: When I feel so empty, so depleted of resources, so sapped of my energy to think about helping a stranger, so worn out to say the words I know should be said, and so busy to keep giving when I’ve already given much ... fill me up, O Lord, my righteousness. Pour into my spirit the divine breath of love that rejuvenates and renews me to care as you care for me. And receive my efforts as joyful thanksgiving that needs no recognition or reward except your heavenly smile. Amen.