Posts
As some of you know I lost a couple of beloved friends last week. They will be sorely missed and I am so glad I had their love for even a short time. Yes, I do know that my blog postings have had a theme as of late but there is a reason: I believe that we don't love enough. We don't express it enough, we don't believe in it enough, we don't share it enough. So after these latest tragedies and nearly losing my furbaby this weekend after she ingested some plastic, I have some thoughts on love.
After yet another tragic event, I'm left with many questions. What would motivate someone to cold-heartedly pull the trigger dozens of times and take the lives of so many people? How could something so awful happen, and what can we do prevent it from occurring again? Where can our children go and be safe? Why did God allow this to happen? Where was He? During the aftermath, psychiatrists, law enforcement officials, clergymen, and a slew of others will try to answer these questions.
I also have some of these same questions, but there is one that troubles me every time a Virginia Tech or Columbine or tsunami or 9-11 knocks me off my seat of complacency. "Why does it take a tragedy for people to realize who and what is really important in life?" Why must people die senselessly for us to stop our busy lives, to embrace those we love a little bit longer, to tell someone from the depths of our hearts we love them, or to realize when it is all said and done, love will be all that really matters?
In the midst of the turmoil we embrace what matters and hold on as tight as we can. Clinging to our loved ones, we vow never to let go. We make promises that we will never take our loved ones and life for granted ever again. But, we do. As the dust settles, violent waters recede, airlines fly once again, and classes resume, we move on and let our busy schedules and daily to-do lists take top priority in our lives. What about love? Yes, we still love, but only when we have time or when it is an item to be checked off on our schedule.
A tragedy strikes.
We love deeply.
Life moves onward, or should I say backward, toward the chaotic schedules we try to maintain. Our senses are awakened, but as quickly they are deadened to the pain in the world around us. Yes, one could go crazy focusing on all the evil and injustices in this world. With so much starvation, suffering, and senseless death, it is much easier to live in a cocoon of complacency than to break free from the comfortable chaos we call life.
"What could I possibly do," we ask, "to make a difference in a world that seems to be going to hell in the proverbial hand basket?" (Actually I believe the basket has grown considerably since this saying came about.) Life will offer us an endless cycle of tragic events, and no, most of them we cannot do anything about. Tsunami warning systems will save some but not all. Metal detectors in schools keep some violence from within the buildings, but they do not erase it from beyond the confines of the walls of the classroom.
In the aftermath of tragedy lies our answer. Love. Not just from being caught up in the emotions of the moment, but love at all times. We treat love as a feeling, but ultimately it is a choice, a decision we make. We can choose to love or not to love. The decision is ours to make. It is in our hands. No one can force us to love. To love only when it is convenient is not love.
Love will not keep all the disasters of this world at bay. Love will, however, keep us from fearing what we ultimately fear: death. When all is said and done, when death rears its ugly head, nothing about life will be regretted if we have lived a life of self-sacrificing love. We will not live in the "what ifs," and "if onlys." Jesus commanded, and did not merely suggest, we "love one another as I have loved you." This is a love that takes its last breath loving. We waste so much of our time not loving, but when we look back upon our lives all that will have mattered is, "did we love with an inexhaustible love?" Love never counts the cost but always says, "no greater love is there than this, than for a man to give up his life for his friends."
Love is Liviu Librescu. A Jewish holocaust survivor, he blocked his classroom door and told his students to jump out the windows while the gunman at Virginia Tech tried to enter and continue his murderous rampage. He took his last breath loving.
There will be many "who, what, when, where, why, and how" questions that can never be answered whenever any tragic event takes place. But only you can answer for yourself the question: "Why does it take a tragedy for us to realize who and what is really important in life?" Why do we "wait" to love?
I also have some of these same questions, but there is one that troubles me every time a Virginia Tech or Columbine or tsunami or 9-11 knocks me off my seat of complacency. "Why does it take a tragedy for people to realize who and what is really important in life?" Why must people die senselessly for us to stop our busy lives, to embrace those we love a little bit longer, to tell someone from the depths of our hearts we love them, or to realize when it is all said and done, love will be all that really matters?
In the midst of the turmoil we embrace what matters and hold on as tight as we can. Clinging to our loved ones, we vow never to let go. We make promises that we will never take our loved ones and life for granted ever again. But, we do. As the dust settles, violent waters recede, airlines fly once again, and classes resume, we move on and let our busy schedules and daily to-do lists take top priority in our lives. What about love? Yes, we still love, but only when we have time or when it is an item to be checked off on our schedule.
A tragedy strikes.
We love deeply.
Life moves onward, or should I say backward, toward the chaotic schedules we try to maintain. Our senses are awakened, but as quickly they are deadened to the pain in the world around us. Yes, one could go crazy focusing on all the evil and injustices in this world. With so much starvation, suffering, and senseless death, it is much easier to live in a cocoon of complacency than to break free from the comfortable chaos we call life.
"What could I possibly do," we ask, "to make a difference in a world that seems to be going to hell in the proverbial hand basket?" (Actually I believe the basket has grown considerably since this saying came about.) Life will offer us an endless cycle of tragic events, and no, most of them we cannot do anything about. Tsunami warning systems will save some but not all. Metal detectors in schools keep some violence from within the buildings, but they do not erase it from beyond the confines of the walls of the classroom.
In the aftermath of tragedy lies our answer. Love. Not just from being caught up in the emotions of the moment, but love at all times. We treat love as a feeling, but ultimately it is a choice, a decision we make. We can choose to love or not to love. The decision is ours to make. It is in our hands. No one can force us to love. To love only when it is convenient is not love.
Love will not keep all the disasters of this world at bay. Love will, however, keep us from fearing what we ultimately fear: death. When all is said and done, when death rears its ugly head, nothing about life will be regretted if we have lived a life of self-sacrificing love. We will not live in the "what ifs," and "if onlys." Jesus commanded, and did not merely suggest, we "love one another as I have loved you." This is a love that takes its last breath loving. We waste so much of our time not loving, but when we look back upon our lives all that will have mattered is, "did we love with an inexhaustible love?" Love never counts the cost but always says, "no greater love is there than this, than for a man to give up his life for his friends."
Love is Liviu Librescu. A Jewish holocaust survivor, he blocked his classroom door and told his students to jump out the windows while the gunman at Virginia Tech tried to enter and continue his murderous rampage. He took his last breath loving.
There will be many "who, what, when, where, why, and how" questions that can never be answered whenever any tragic event takes place. But only you can answer for yourself the question: "Why does it take a tragedy for us to realize who and what is really important in life?" Why do we "wait" to love?
Everything is always okay in the end, if it's not okay, then it's not the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment