Waiting to Care

Everyone has heard the argument that love is an action before it's an emotion when it comes to marriage. But what about when it comes to our fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we to only grieve or rejoice with our siblings in Christ when we feel like it?

If that were how we should do it, then the only time we would grieve or rejoice would be when the situation directly affected us. That is selfish.

How then shall we react to our brother when he develops a brain tumor? How shall we react when our sister loses a family member to a heart attack? CARE! - the action. We are not to sit and wait for our emotions to stir us to action. We are to be people of action.

My friend Bob made an excellent point recently as I discussed with him some bad news I had just received. He made a distinction between being a person of action and being a person of emotion. When I'm called to weep with those who are weeping, my job is not to guilt myself into feeling bad for my brother so that I can grieve with him. My command is to grieve whether I want to or whether I want to, or whether I don't want to.

Being knit together in love takes work. So the question is not, "Are you willing?" But rather, "Are you ready?"

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
- Colossians 2.1-3