Bearing Witness to Love
For years, I’ve thought of myself as someone who serves the poor. But I’m beginning to wonder if that’s not one layer off. Perhaps my vocation is more accurately described as bearing witness to love.
Serving the poor is the primary way I’ve been called to bear that witness. Building better systems is another. Writing is another. Even my interest in community isn’t separate from this. If, as I believe, love is the only thing of lasting value, then every system worth building is simply a system that makes love easier to express.
This reminds me of something Mother Teresa once said:
“The fruit of love is service.”
One might then say: Faith gives love its source. Love compels service. Service gives love form. In framing it this way, maybe I should not speak so much about fixing the world. And, rather, speak more about loving the world. Subtle distinction, but a profound one.
Frankly, no one can eliminate all suffering. No one can save everyone. But anyone can love the person in front of them. That makes this calling both infinitely ambitious and wonderfully attainable. We aren’t responsible for the outcome of history. We are, however, responsible for faithfully expressing love in whatever corner of the world God has entrusted to us. And that strikes me as a deeply Wesleyan way of thinking. John Wesley emphasized that faith is more than assent to doctrine. It’s a life transformed by grace and made visible through acts of mercy. Works don’t earn God’s favor. They reveal a heart that has been changed by God’s grace.
I’ve come to believe that love is the only real truth. It’s the breath in our soul. It’s the source of genuine meaning. Yet we’re quick to look for substitutes in titles, success, wealth, prestige, and the countless distractions of our world.
But, still, only love has the capacity to hold true.
Understand that when I speak of love, I speak of much more than an emotion. I speak of a way of being. A way of living. In fact, to love another person is the only way to truly be alive. When we recognize another person’s suffering as our own, love compels us to act. And, in so acting, we’re able to make that love visible and manifest.
Bringing life to both: the one loving and the one being loved.
Love must be our compass. Without it, we surely lose our way. With it, we find a path worth walking. Expressed as a simple framework, it looks like this.
Why are we here?
To love God and love our neighbor. Everything else hangs on these two commandments. (Matthew 22:37–40).
What does love actually do?
It moves toward those who are suffering. Pure religion is caring for widows and orphans in their distress. (James 1:27).
How do we know our love is real?
It produces action. Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:17).
Therefore, one might say: Love is the foundation. Mercy is the expression. Action is the evidence. Everything else is… rather empty and meaningless. One more quote:
“We can do no great things. Only small things with great love.”
Mother Teresa
