Moving on to our next temperament, we will look at the experience of caregiving. Gary Thomas in his wonderful book on spiritual formation, Sacred Pathways, defines this temperament as "those who love God by loving others."
Caregivers ask "What if Jesus really meant it when he said 'love your neighbor as yourself?'"
"For caregivers, giving care isn't a chore, but a form of worship" [SP, 135]
When our world thinks of caregivers, one cannot help but think about Mother Teresa. She was, hands down, one of our generation's most popular and well know caregivers. I cannot think of anyone more loving and compassionate than Mother Teresa. In her time on earth, she gave the world a number of quotes, but unlike so many today she actually lived out her sound bytes. One of her quotes that I really like is this:
“I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will not ask, 'How many good things have you done in your life?' rather he will ask, 'How much love did you put into what you did?”
At the beginning of this study some 8 weeks ago, our class discussed Jesus' words where he's asked which is the greatest command. Jesus responded that we should love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and that has been the bulk of this class' discussion (spiritual formation as a holistic experiences). But to the surprise of those in the passage Jesus chases that command with another command "Also, love your neighbor as yourself."
The very core of God's desire for us is to love him with all that we have, but also to love others with just as much intensity.
Every week we have laid out a spread of biblical examples of each temperament, but with this temperament I only want to simply look at the words and example of Jesus. No one else in the entire Bible was able to love and care for others as perfectly as Jesus did. So get your Bible out and let's recount some of those wonderful stories where Jesus gives us crystal clear examples of how to properly love and care for others.
Feeding of the 5000 [Mark 6:35ff] - We are all really familiar with this story, but I find it so interesting that Mark points out that Jesus had "compassion on the people." Jesus saw that there was a very physical need that had to be met and he supplied them with that need. When it comes to caregiving, it doesn't get much more basic than that. For the caregiver, simply providing someone with food is a worthy spiritual practice, whether that person be homeless and without food or simply a friend with whom you want to share a meal.
Children and Jesus [Mark 10:13ff] - A little later in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is tending to the people as he so often did, and parents began to bring their children to him. I love this passage of scripture because I can just see the love Jesus has in his heart for these small children. It's hard to imagine that Jesus was a grumpy middle-aged man while taking children on his knee. You have to think that Jesus had a great personality for the children to want to be around him. Not to mention that children in that culture were not as endeared as they are in our culture. This story shows us yet again how Jesus interacted and cared for those whom the world had all but rejected. His actions are filled with love and compassion.
The Man with Leprosy [Luke 5:12ff] - This is one of my favorite healing stories because of some the nuances and details we get. First off, I love this man's humbleness. I think he gives us an example of how to come before God asking "if you are willing." And I love Jesus' response as the text says "He reached out and touched the man and said 'I am willing.'" Holy cow! The fact that Jesus would touch this man rings all sorts of warning bells in the Jewish culture. First, the guy is unclean by Jewish standards because of the leprosy. Second, he has a disease that spreads by touch. We should probably note that due to this man's disease it is likely that no one had touched him, or been near him (besides other lepers probably), in some time. And then comes Jesus, full of compassion, love, and grace who reaches out and touches him to heal him.
All throughout the Gospels you see Jesus do this sort of thing and the Gospel writers do a really good job of pointing out those times when Jesus reaches out and touches someone.
We could point elsewhere in the Bible to others like Paul who talks about being the body of Christ, and bearing one another's burdens. We could look at James who tells us that true religion is the one that tends to the widows and orphans. We could point to the passages of scripture that teach us love, kindness, gentleness, and hospitality. The list cold go on forever. Christianity is a caring religion.
It boils down to this: Love God. Love others.
I mentioned a book called The Art of Neighboring in a post a while back talking about time. This book has really awakened me to be a better caregiver in my life. It simply asks "What if Jesus really meant it when he told us to love our neighbors?" Not love everyone who could be my neighbor, but actually loving my real, 100 feet away from me neighbors.
So, I really stink at this. As in introvert I would much rather keep to myself and ignore those around me, trying not to make eye contact. And because of my selfish desire to keep to myself, others are at risk of not hearing the Gospel.
The authors of this book give us a really fun and revealing activity that I would like to challenge you with today as we talk about being caregivers. They present a simple block map and ask that you begin filling out the names of those 8 neighbors closest to you. Maybe take a few minutes and print one out for yourself and give it a whirl....I'll wait!
How well did you do? How many spots could you fill in?
I've lived in this neighborhood for just a little over a year, and could probably only do about 6 houses, but a few weeks ago I could only do a couple.
The authors of the Art of Neighboring suggest that just taking that first step and learning peoples' names opens up so many new doors to the share the love and compassion of Jesus Christ. I highly recommend this book, and hope that you will check it out.
I close with a very short story that I once heard told by Lynn Anderson. In one of his sermons I heard a while back Lynn talked about a time back in the 70s when the HIV Aids virus had just come on the scene. He told the story of a man who came to him at his church in Abilene having been one of the first diagnosed in the city. As you could imagine this man he was scared and ultimately dying. To make a longer story short, this man came to Lynn and requested that he pray and to place his hands on him. And the best part is Lynn did. He continues the story that after he had finished praying, this man looked at him with tear stained eyes and said "That is the first time anyone has touched me in the past year without wearing rubber gloves."
That is what is means to be a caregiver, and I believe that is being Christ to the world. So today, let us go out and touch the untouchable, love the unloveable, and be the hands and feet of Christ to people who the world has forgotten.
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