An Example Of Love
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
John 13:35
Our popular music talks constantly about love, and yet divorce rates skyrocket, child abuse is rampant, and our world is shaken by wars, violence, and terrorism. Major news magazines feature cover stories on “The ‘Me’ Generation.” This generation, it seems, would rather see a prizefight than fight for a prize. Not only has the song “Rescue the Perishing, Care for the Dying” disappeared from most of our songbooks; its theme has disappeared from our hearts, except for victims of physical famine, oppressive regimes, and tidal waves. And these are terribly important. It is just that the spiritually perishing need to hear the Gospel.
Several years ago we were visiting India. While we were there a terrible tidal wave hit a fifty-mile section of the coast, killing thousands of people and completely destroying scores of villages and towns. Indian officials graciously provided a helicopter and accompanied us to the area, and we were among the first to view the devastation. I will never forget the terrible destruction and the stench of death—it was as if a thousand atomic bombs had gone off at the same time.
The disaster was virtually ignored by the rest of the world. Why? Because there is so much suffering in the world already that the media cannot cover it all.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “I feel sorry for the man who can’t feel the whip when it is laid on the other man’s back.”
Our Father and our God, give me Your eyes of concern for this lost and dying world. Help me to really see the blank stares and lonely faces I pass on the street. Let me reach out in love with Your Word to rescue them from perishing. I want to be a channel of Your compassion to hurting people. In Christ’s name. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).