"And this is love?"
It's been some time since the earthquake in Japan--just enough time for us to begin forgetting about the tragedy. I've moved on with my life. It's easy when the media outlets no longer keep us conveniently plugged in and up to date.
The other day NPR/BBC jarred me out of my ill-informed state by a story about the Fukushima Power Plant restoration process. During the earthquake and ensuing tsunami, the nuclear power plant went into partial meltdown, releasing deadly levels of radiation. Now, as the clean-up process continues, someone must go into the radiation zone and begin the process of stopping the radiation leak.
A group of over 200 retired Japanese, all over the age of 60, are volunteering to tackle the nuclear crisis. They call themselves the Skilled Veterans Corps and they are mostly retired engineers and other skilled laborers. The founder of the Corps, Yasuteru Yamada, said he was watching television when he decided it was time for his generation to stand up. The volunteers say they should be the ones exposed to the dangerous radiation levels--not the younger generation. Yasuteru is reporting back to duty at the tender age of 72. He shuns accolades of valor and bravery, saying it's logical... it's what should be done.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by stories like this. After all, we just memorialized the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001. In the wake of those terrible acts of violence, thousands of police officers, firemen, soldiers, and other men and women gave sacrificially of their health, their time, and even their lives, to save others. Yet, I still find myself amazed and surprised as I read such stories of men and women willing to put themselves in harms way in place of others.
Maybe I shouldn't be surprised by this type of self-sacrifice, especially as a follower of Jesus. I live in the wake of God's sacrificial love that went so far as to sacrifice His own Son.
Maybe it's because I can't imagine doing something like that myself. I can't imagine putting my own life on the line to save someone else. I just can't bring myself to honestly say I would do such a thing. But, maybe the hardest part for me to accept is that Jesus asked me to be willing to love like that! Mark 12:31 says the greatest commandment is to love my neighbor, but 1 John 3:16 says that love equals laying down my life for my friends.
Maybe I'll never be asked to run into a collapsing building. Maybe I won't be given the opportunity to take the radiation poisoning in someone else's place. Maybe I won't ever have a chance to stand in the gap for someone and put my life on the line literally, but maybe every day it's a choice I have to make--am I going to consider my own desires and needs and wants more important, or am I going to sacrifice myself and put the desires and needs and wants of someone else ahead of my own. Today my choice isn't between life and death, but it is between living or dying to self... killing off my pride, my selfishness, my tendencies toward injustice, impatience, and envy... and replacing it with humility, love, peace, justice, mercy, self-sacrifice, patience, kindness, contentedness. But I think this choice of living and dying is sometimes just as hard as the choice to put myself in a potentially harmful situation in place of someone else... and it comes every day... every hour... sometimes every minute.
The other day NPR/BBC jarred me out of my ill-informed state by a story about the Fukushima Power Plant restoration process. During the earthquake and ensuing tsunami, the nuclear power plant went into partial meltdown, releasing deadly levels of radiation. Now, as the clean-up process continues, someone must go into the radiation zone and begin the process of stopping the radiation leak.
A group of over 200 retired Japanese, all over the age of 60, are volunteering to tackle the nuclear crisis. They call themselves the Skilled Veterans Corps and they are mostly retired engineers and other skilled laborers. The founder of the Corps, Yasuteru Yamada, said he was watching television when he decided it was time for his generation to stand up. The volunteers say they should be the ones exposed to the dangerous radiation levels--not the younger generation. Yasuteru is reporting back to duty at the tender age of 72. He shuns accolades of valor and bravery, saying it's logical... it's what should be done.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by stories like this. After all, we just memorialized the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001. In the wake of those terrible acts of violence, thousands of police officers, firemen, soldiers, and other men and women gave sacrificially of their health, their time, and even their lives, to save others. Yet, I still find myself amazed and surprised as I read such stories of men and women willing to put themselves in harms way in place of others.
Maybe I shouldn't be surprised by this type of self-sacrifice, especially as a follower of Jesus. I live in the wake of God's sacrificial love that went so far as to sacrifice His own Son.
Maybe it's because I can't imagine doing something like that myself. I can't imagine putting my own life on the line to save someone else. I just can't bring myself to honestly say I would do such a thing. But, maybe the hardest part for me to accept is that Jesus asked me to be willing to love like that! Mark 12:31 says the greatest commandment is to love my neighbor, but 1 John 3:16 says that love equals laying down my life for my friends.
Maybe I'll never be asked to run into a collapsing building. Maybe I won't be given the opportunity to take the radiation poisoning in someone else's place. Maybe I won't ever have a chance to stand in the gap for someone and put my life on the line literally, but maybe every day it's a choice I have to make--am I going to consider my own desires and needs and wants more important, or am I going to sacrifice myself and put the desires and needs and wants of someone else ahead of my own. Today my choice isn't between life and death, but it is between living or dying to self... killing off my pride, my selfishness, my tendencies toward injustice, impatience, and envy... and replacing it with humility, love, peace, justice, mercy, self-sacrifice, patience, kindness, contentedness. But I think this choice of living and dying is sometimes just as hard as the choice to put myself in a potentially harmful situation in place of someone else... and it comes every day... every hour... sometimes every minute.
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