A friend lent me Brooke Fraser’s album ‘Albertine’ named for a Rwandese orphan whose mother, during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, laid down her life to save her daughter.Would I lay down my life for someone? “Probably not”… self- preservation features quite high on my list of priorities.
However maybe I am not as selfish as I think. There is this time someone threatened to hit my mother with an iron bar. My brother and I stood in front of her, totally willing to take the beating. My only thought then was to protect her. So I could possibly lay down my life for someone I love.
But would I do it for someone I didn’t even know in the way that bodyguards, firemen, Aid workers in war zones, law enforcement officers etc do? Whenever they go to work they are putting their lives on the line.
I wonder how often we show them and their families’ appreciation?
Would I do it for someone who hated me? You know, like Jesus did?
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5: 6 – 8)
What about all those missionaries who go out into territories that are hostile to the Gospel? I hear about the underground church and torture stories in China, and also stuff like those South Korean missionaries who were abducted in Afghanistan last year. What is it about Christianity that makes non-Christians feel so threatened!!!
But even if I was not able to make the ultimate sacrifice (i.e. death) and instead interpreted ‘laying down your life’ as putting aside your creature comforts, time, money for the sake of someone else, could I do that?
This has been such a challenge for me. A friend with mental health problems has nowhere to stay, and has been phoning up to ask for my help in accomodating her. I don't know how to deal with her illness (even though she was sectioned, she doesn't think she is ill), besides I have no room. I told her that I couldn't put her up, but she still phones me to ask. It's got to a point where I have started screening her calls. I feel so guilty! Surely the Bible tells us to love one another, even when it is uncomfortable! But how do I show love to my friend? What would Jesus do?
I still have a very long way to becoming more like Jesus!
