Love Means Renouncing Indifference (Principles and Practices for the Spiritual Life, Part 1b)
A life poured out in love is the starting point of all true Christianity, the source and summit of all true humanity. God in Christ has invited us as His people to live as redeemed and redemptive truly human beings by loving God and neighbor with the totality of our being. The full and unreserved giving of ourselves in love is that upon which the entire story of God’s redemptive purpose hinges. To miss this one point, or to make it so lofty a goal it is thus reserved for a far off future or an elite class of super-christians that do not anywhere exist, is to miss the whole of Christianity. Anything that does not start here is not Christianity, regardless of how many so-called Christian ideas, activities, platitudes and rectitudes crowd our lives. If fundamentally our being itself is not entirely a self-offering of love, we are not practicing Christianity.
I am not here initially speaking of a mature emotional and psychological life which constantly effuses compassion and grace toward the least deserving. That is a worthy goal, but is not what I am meaning by the starting point of Christianity. I do however certainly mean radically reorienting our lives so as to become such a person. This process begins by altering our lives’ basic organizing principles and embracing a process of thorough-going change whereby over time God shapes and molds us into people who love fully and deeply from the heart. To begin with, we must ask fundamental questions about what motivations shape and determine our lives. The movement towards love starts with a movement from consumption to generosity. Is my life shaped around the goal of taking or giving? This can be seen by observing our decision making processes. What determines how I spend my time, money, energy, emotions, resources, etc.? Are they utilized for self-absorption, self-satisfaction, self-promotion, or self-protection, which are all essentially forms of taking for one’s self, i.e., self-consumption?
A life poured out in love approaches these issues differently. Such a person does not makes decisions motivated by the shallow desire to “do what I want,” but rather from a deeper desire to enter into generous relationships of sharing, giving, helping and freeing. Is my money fundamentally for my own comfort, or is it to provide for others? Is my time primarily to entertain myself, or is for me to be an beacon of God’s justice and truth? Are my relationships mostly about what others can do for me – relieve my boredom, affirm my ideologies, open doors of opportunity; or are they avenues for partnership in the outward expansion of God’s creative and healing love? Of course I do not believe that life should be a non-stop service project without taking care of yourself. I will address this in the next principle. However, for now, I’d prefer to avoid making qualifications. It is more easy than we imagine to sink into a comfortable realm of indifference and content ourselves with token expressions of altruism. Jesus calls us in the Great Commandment to love with the entirety of ourselves. The apostle John refuses to even acknowledge something called “indifference” and only contrasts between Christians who “love” and those who “hate.” (1 John 3:14ff). To fail to take the call to this kind of love seriously, the invitation to renounce a life centered around consumption, we are participating in the perpetuation of hatred which merely masquerades as “indifference.” Are we asking ourselves serious questions about what motivates our lives? This does not necessitate agonizing soul searching and an endless quest for a “hidden motivations.” Rather, it is often readily apparent whether a particular use of time, money, resources, etc. is about a consumptive taking or a loving generosity. The analysis is not the hard part. Surrendering the anger and anxiety of consumption’s tight-fisted posture for the open-handed self-giving of love in an unqualified manner throughout all of one’s life remains the outstanding challenge. Yet if we were honest, the grasping and clenching of self-concern has not paid out the dividends of happiness and contentment it so frequently offers. If the way to being truly human lies in the undivided gift of our lives in love, I surmise in this path may quite possibly also lie the way to being truly happy.
Comment from Jason
Time: June 28, 2010, 5:34 pm
Excellent and brief essay. I can’t help but think of the importance in this message during these lean times. I really appreciate your writing. Keep it up!