First is the Worst, Second is the Best

There have been two quotes ruminating in my mind lately. The first, from Judah Smith, the Pastor of The City Church in Seattle and the second is from Dr. Seuss.

Judah Smith stated, "I want to be a leader who is regularly leveraging my position to help others, not leveraging others for my position."  And before I move on to what the great Dr. said, I want to sit on this notion for awhile, because I think in general, as a society, we are failing at this.

We are a society that loves ourselves more than we love others. We sometimes love our neighbors, as we are called to do, but often times, we love our neighbors because it makes us look good. We care when it is convenient for us, which poses a problem if you believe that convenience has no place in caring. I think we are failing at caring because we are too worried about how we look ourselves. We don't rise to the occasion to care unless we are going to look better for it or we are going to get some type of recognition or praise. Unless we end up in first, it's not worth our time.

But to that type of caring, I say, "First is the worst. Second is the best." We need to become okay with being second so that we can love others into first.

"Wouldn't you like to be the skater who wins the silver, and yet is thrilled about those three triple jumps that the gold medal winner did? To love it the way you love a sunrise? Just to love the fact that it was done? For it not to matter whether it was their success or your success. Not to care if they did it or you did it. You are as happy that they did it as if you had done it yourself- because you are just so happy to see it" (Timothy Keller).

Our world is desperate for that kind of love. We don't need any more competitive love. It's not about one upping your neighbor by showing a bigger, better expression of it. It's not about name dropping. It's not about who you can spend time with and walk away from with the most prestige. It doesn't have to be grandiose and it shouldn't always point back to you. We're not called to love so that we can get the glory. We're called to love because God is love and we are to show Him to the ends of the earth.

Jesus didn't die and raise again so that we could get the praise. He didn't die for us to be worshipped. He died to make our broken lives beautiful in a way that only He can so that when people look at our lives, they see Him. Too much of our love is about us, even though we are shouting with our mouths that our lives are all about Him. Our actions need to speak louder than our words.

In Bob Goff's book, Love Does, in describing a friend and the way the friend loved him, Bob writes, "He saw the need and he did something about it. He didn't just say he was for me or with me. He was actually present with me" (p.8).

We need to start being actually present for one another. We need to stop weighing our actions and whether or not we care based on how it will make us look, or if we have time, or how convenient it is for us. We can sit and complain and grovel about the condition of our world, but until we start showing up and actually being present, our world is not going to change. I'll say it again, our actions need to speak louder than our words.

Until our loving and caring stops being driven by our desires to see ourselves more glorified, our love won't make a difference. Our world won't change. Until we start choosing to care even when it might mess up our schedules or change our plans, our caring won't make a difference. Our world won't change.Which brings me to the Dr. Seuss quote from The Lorax, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot. Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”