Loving Like Jesus

“You need to learn to start thinking like a mom!” This was spoken by my wife last Friday, and I’m pretty sure the exclamation point is the correct punctuation to include on the end of that sentence.

Our six-year-old son had just had surgery to remove his tonsils and adenoids that afternoon. While he was still recovering, my wife got sick. Not the best timing there, but we can handle this. At least I thought I could. My thinker, however, doesn’t exactly work like a mom’s. Thus the climactic line mentioned above uttered by my sweet wife out of exasperation over my ineptitude as a caregiver, frustration over her own sickness and compassion for our hurting little boy.

Yeah, that would be the key. If I could somehow learn to start thinking like a mom, maybe things would get better. Wasn’t there an episode in Star Trek once where they transplanted minds or something? Or maybe it was The Twilight Zone. Somewhere I’ve seen it done on TV, so surely it must be possible.

By the way, to those of you who provide care to those who need extra help on an ongoing basis, my hat’s off to you. Whether it’s your disabled child, an elderly parent or grandparent, or a spouse with physical or mental illness, you have my utmost respect and admiration for your compassionate-kindness, your patience and your endurance. God bless you for such love.

Love! Yes, there’s the real key. It’s not so much that I need to start thinking like a mom. I need to start loving! Loving like a Christian. Loving like Jesus loved, and like He told us to love. How did He love? He laid down His life for us! That’s how we know what love is, and that’s how we ought to love each other.

Jesus humbled Himself on our behalf. He left the glory of heaven to come to earth, to live among us, becoming like us in the flesh. He came not to be served but to serve, and He met the needs of the poor, the outcast, the despised, the hurting and the lost (which ought to cover just about all of us). He said it’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. And He Himself is the cure. He gave up His life on the cross so that we might have eternal life. That’s laying down His life for us in demonstration of what love really is.

And if I’m reading the Bible right, we who claim the name of Jesus must and will lay down our lives for one another. If you have the ability to help someone in need and close your heart toward that person, then you’re showing that the love of God does not truly abide in you. You cannot claim to love God and not love your brother. “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8). That’s biblical.

I read a quote recently from an unknown source that said, “Love will find a way; indifference will find an excuse.” To love like Jesus may not be easy. It might be messy and time-consuming. It probably won’t be convenient. And it may be quite costly. But there’s a world of hurting, broken people out there who need someone to love them. And love will find a way. Indifference could come up with any number of reasons to not help, but Christians love in deed and truth, not with empty words.

Loving like Jesus would be impossible for even the most kind and benevolent of people – except for the fact that He makes it possible. See, it’s really impossible for me to get a mind transplant from my wife. But here’s the thing about Jesus. When we come to Him in repentance and faith, receiving Him as Lord and Savior, He does this spiritual transplant in our lives. He implants His own Spirit into us. He dwells within us and enables and equips us to live and to love like Him.

The needs around us right now seem overwhelming. In our own county people are suffering the loss of homes and property. Things are even worse in the southern U.S. where they’re also dealing with loss of lives from devastating tornadoes. And it’s even worse in Japan and in many other places in the world today.

No one can do it all. But we can all do something. Let’s start by loving like Jesus.