The Death of Dreams
In 1968 America seemed on the brink of catastrophe. The Vietnam War was escalating and thousands had taken to the streets in protest. North Korea had captured one of our ships and was holding the crew hostage. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis. And now another hero had been shot. As doctors in a Los Angeles hospital worked to save the life of Robert F. Kennedy, local radio stations played this song on repeat as an audio vigil.
“What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
No, not just for some but for everyone”
– What the World Needs Now (by David/Bacharach and performed by Jackie DeShannon)
Just over 24 hours later on June 6, 1968, Bobby Kennedy died. It seemed a cruel irony that these two men, King and Kennedy, who stood for peace and reconciliation, were both taken from this world in a period of three months. Many who dreamed of a better world believed their dreams died with these men.
Getting Personal
It’s 2015 and things have not changed that much. America and the world live with the very real sense at that violence could erupt at any time. I think we can all agree that the world still needs more love. But how do we get more love? Where would this love come from? A long time ago, Jesus said that the most important thing people should do is to love. First, we love God and then love each other. He said everything else we’ve been taught rests on these two principles. Doing the other stuff is good, but without love we’ve missed the point entirely. Love is personal. It flows from God to us and then through us to each other. The New Testament guy, Paul, wrote that no matter how many good things you do, if love is not your motivation then chill out. You’re just making a lot of noise. Love is the highest and best motive for everything we do. But love becomes real only when we get personal.
Making Room for Love
Whatever your faith tradition, most of us can agree that God created people out of his desire for friendship. Relationship is really important to God and when he created people he had to make space for us in his world.
“Zimzum is a Hebrew word used in the rabbinic tradition to talk about the creation of the world— not in a scientific way but more like something somewhere between poetry and metaphysical speculation. Followers of this tradition began with the assumption that before there was anything, there was only God. The divine, they believed, was all that was… Their contention was that for something to exist that wasn’t God, God had to contract or withdraw from a certain space so that something else, something other than God, could exist and thrive in that space. And the word they used for this divine contraction is zimzum.”
– The Zimzum of Love (by Rob & Kristen Bell)
Don’t we do the same thing? We make space in our lives for the people we love. The closer and more intimate the relationship, the more we’re willing to sacrifice and be intentional about taking action that’s in the best interest of another person. It’s amazing how different we become when we have somebody to love.
Our Default Setting
Jesus said that the greatest demonstration of love is when a person lays down his life for his friends. That’s exactly what Jesus did. But laying down our lives doesn’t mean that we have to die for people. It does mean that we follow God’s example of making room for other people in our lives. It’s not some terrible burden that’s meant to weigh us down. Jesus came to give us life, not more stuff to do. When we establish a life connection with Jesus, we naturally begin to love other people. It becomes our identity. God is love and so are we. He actually increases our desire and capacity to love. The main reason Jesus came was to restore broken relationships. He gave us a glimpse of what God is like and modeled a life of love and compassion. When we trust him and make space for him in our lives, God changes our heart and mind so that love becomes our default setting.
Activated for Love
I believe the world already has all the love we need. Accessing that love seems to be the real problem. Our hearts are like cell phones that are locked. We need to get unlocked so we can restore our network connection with God. He’s the source of everything we need, especially love. The good news is that Jesus has paid our activation fee. When we trust him, God enters an unlock code into our heart and something comes alive inside us. What we experience is so amazing that we have to tell our friends and family. Hey, who doesn’t want unlimited minutes to access divine love? The more people who get unlocked the more love we’ll activate. What the word needs now is us–unlocked and activated for love. It only takes a little love to make a big difference.
“Another day goes by and still the children cry
Put a little love in your heart
If you want the world to know, we won’t let hatred grow
Put a little love in your heart
And the world will be a better place
And the world will be a better place
For you and me, you just wait and see”
– Put a Little Love in Your Heart (written/performed by Jackie DeShannon)
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