Life Giver

1 John 3:16-24
John 10:11-18

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us--and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.


What does it mean to lay down your life for someone else? It might mean being willing to die for someone or for a cause you believe in.... that would certainly fit the criteria of what Jesus did.  But perhaps it also is more subtle and more ordinary than that, as well.

Perhaps what is suggested in these two scriptures is that we are willing to 'go the distance' for one another. We are willing to support one another, rather than tear one another apart, for example. I have mentioned the Hunger Games before. The teen fight-to-the-death gladiator-style extravaganza in the popular book (now a movie) by Suzanne Collins. What if those kids had defied the expected norm and decided to go the distance, not for themselves or their district, but for one another? What if they all tried to SAVE one another, rather than kill one another?

I believe we all have opportunities to be life givers.  We all have opportunities, big and small, to give all we are and all we have to the betterment of the world. Of course, we will all fail from time to time; we're only human. But look at the opportunities we have to give life abundantly every day.

Smile more.

Give more.

React with love and compassion.

We know that if we are to live like Christ, we must be willing to lay our whole lives down on the line for the God we believe in... and we must work continuously on our spiritual lives so that we might have the discipline to do that if required.... through community action, through civil protest, through speaking the truth in love.  Sometime being a life giver is big and explosive.

But, not always...
I know some of the most life giving moments I have been a part of are the ones when someone does something completely unexpected that I needed at just the right time.  A friend calls. An encouraging card arrives in the mail.  A teenaged son gives me a hug and a smile.  A play, movie, TV show or book moves me to 'good' tears.  A bunny hops across the sidewalk.  A dog licks my hand at church.

Life giving is all encompassing.  It runs the spectrum from small and still to larger-than-life and dangerous.  What life giving moments have come your way lately?  What ways could you be a life giver to someone else?

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