“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”
At this writing our national debt stands at $19,116,857,755,842 and growing by the second. It doesn't take a degree in economics to understand the negative implications for posterity.
Debt is bad stuff . . . except when it comes to love. Love is a debt that we owe in perpetuity.
I felt the cool breeze of love yesterday. It came by way of kind words, a warm embrace, a shared meal, and a phone call from a friend who was "checking in on me." Each act of love was planned, each marked by a degree of intentionality, each helpful for my heart and soul.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes of the importance of love in the Christian community, the kind that manifests itself in helpful acts:
The second service that one should perform for another in a Christian community is that of active helpfulness. This means, initially, simple assistance in trifling, external matters. There is a multitude of these things wherever people live together.
Nobody is too good for the meanest service. One who worries about the loss of time that such petty, outward acts of helpfulness entail is usually taking the importance of his own career too solemnly. Life Together, page 99.
Today the national debt remains outstanding, so does my debt to love others. So does yours.
“Active helpfulness”
Who needs it? How can you demonstrate it today?