Loving Conditionally

I had a hard time getting the words out of my mouth, "loving conditionally" It just doesn't flow right when you try to say it. Of course, the real phrase is to love unconditionally. The idea behind the thought is that regardless of what you do, who you are, or how bad it gets, you are still loved. Is that a hard one to swallow? In human terms it certainly is a challenging concept. How quick are we to pass judgement on others and discard them when they don't fit the mold we see as "loveable”? Unconditional love is heavenly, literally. If you want an example of unconditional love look no further than the example God provided with the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. 

Jesus is the epitome of what unconditional love looks like. Think about it, after the Romans had beaten him, tortured him, and nailed him to the cross, this man looked down at his persecutors and then looked to his Father and asked God to forgive them. Why would Jesus ask his Father to forgive them? Why didn't He say, Hey Dad, how about you make these guys pay for what they have done to me! There can only be one reason, unconditional love. We can't move far enough away, we don't have to measure up to some kind of standard, and we don't have to look, act, or behave a certain way, God loves us unconditionally. 

God's son, Jesus, explained it like this. Love the Lord Thy God first and then love thy neighbor as thyself. (Luke 10) After sharing that guidance with a group of people that had gathered to listen to Jesus, a man asked Him "who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied by sharing the parable of the Good Samaritan and then asked the man who do you think the neighbor is in the parable? Of course, it was the man who stopped and gave a hand up to the man from Samaria who had been beaten and left for dead in the ditch. 

Interestingly, the neighbor Jesus referred to wasn't the man's next-door neighbor, it was someone, anyone, that needs a helping hand. Unconditionally displaying love which coincidentally is also known as the word "charity". Charity: voluntarily giving to someone in need. Someone in need, not someone that looks just like me, believes the same way I do, someone that I think deserves my "charity", but instead the word charity means giving to someone. Someone, anyone, I believe those two words are interchangeable and very well should be. If Jesus, beaten nearly to death and then nailed to a rugged cross can look down at the men and women who demanded He be put to death and say, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do" Luke 23:34, then who are we to be picking and choosing who we want as our neighbor. 

It is hard to say the term conditionally loved, because the two words do not go together. We are called to love unconditionally just as we are loved unconditionally by our Father in Heaven. If His love for me was conditional, I'm pretty sure I would not be loved. If love is only to be given to someone that has the same skin pigment as mine, then is that really love? Does someone with a different hue of dermis deserve less of a life than you or I? If someone speaks a different language am I allowed to not love them as my neighbor? According to the words of Jesus I don't think so. 

Today's Flat Tire Ministry may strike a chord with some, so I ask you to consider something. We are a country of immigrants, immigrants that have traveled across oceans to call this continent home. A land of immigrants so much that we have been labeled the great melting pot. Why did our forefathers come to this land? For a better way of life. Why does anyone still come to America today? For a better way of life. Fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, and anyone else reading today's message, I want you to put yourself in a situation for just one minute. The place where you live is destitute, crime, drugs, murder, and thievery are the daily norm. If you don't like that place then how about putting yourself in a city where there are no real jobs, poverty would be considered living well, and the prospects of things improving are minimal at best. In either of those cities the likelihood that your child could be molested, stolen, or at best uneducated and destined to live the same hopeless lifestyle that you have lived is highly probable. Would you not reach out to a "Good Samaritan" for a hand up? Would you not want your "neighbor" to love you unconditionally as a human being with a family? Would you not do the same thing for your family? Would you not take a chance on picking your family up and moving them to a place where you know there are jobs, food, clean water, housing, and hope that if you worked hard and gave it all you got your family could be safe? If you can honestly sit there and say you would not move your family then I'm not sure why you are even reading this today. No, it is not my place to judge you. I will leave that to the One that will judge each of us when it is our turn to be judged. 

While I am on this earth, while I have lungs that breathe and provide me with a voice to speak, while I have the opportunity to support our students, all students, I will make every attempt to be your neighbor, a neighbor that will demonstrate loving others unconditionally. I ask you to look deep in your heart today, do a self-assessment and ask yourself, "Do I love conditionally or do I love as my Father loves me, unconditionally?" Ours is a grand venture, the tone of our country is one of division not union. As people look for ways to divide us, I challenge you to be someone that pulls us together. "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends." John 15:13.

 

Coach Carter