The Best Story Ever told in the History of the World
The Fall of Man
What is Selfless Love?
Selfless love: It means to love regardless of your personal needs. You love whole heartedly without loving yourself, without any personal gain. It is exact opposite of selfish love.
One of the best stories of selfless love the world has ever embraced was the story of the love shown to us by Jesus Christ. Perhaps the only one who showed and taught the world what selfless love was truly all about.
The crucifixion and the sacrifice of the Lord has shaken and shocked many lives and brought all of us down to our knees.
Ephesians 5:2 says, “Your life must be controlled by love, just as Christ loved us and gave his life for us as a sweet smelling offering and sacrifice that pleases God.”
Everyone is capable of giving and receiving selfless love but how you interpret it, changes everything.
Selfishness- the opposite of Selflessness
Displaying selfless love can be misinterpreted by most especially those with a negative attitude. Jealousy, unforgiveness and selfishness are some of the key traits and these people have learned to live with them throughout their lives. They do not see unconditional love for what it is. In such cases, it is important to consider the fact that these individuals maybe living with a painful past experience and these cloud the happiness they are supposed to feel after experiencing self less love. No matter what is done for them, they would never see beyond the thoughts and deeds they have lived by for so long.
The world is a cruel place to live and unconditional love has began to deteriorate in the present world. It is during the hard and troubled times that one wishes some living soul would show him mercy.
The suffering of Christ
What the Bible tells us about Selfless Love?
The word “love” has been mentioned 310 times in the King James Bible and 551 times in the New International Version.
The story of selfless love began from the Genesis of the world, passed through King David and to the time of Christ and still continues to this present day. His power and love shines on the faithful and wicked alike.
In the present world, love is a philosophical inexhaustible topic probably because we are mostly love obsessed people and selfless love has become rather rare than the romantic kind. It is often a difficult thing and can test the limits of one’s love for another. It can give way to betrayal, disappointment and anger if pushed beyond one’s limits. Still, it’s an amazing gift when it does happen. And it’s the type of love that we all want. Someone who can love us through thick and thin, no matter what we do or become.
Unconditional love is easy for God with his infinite patience and his capacity to forgive but mankind is vulnerable to the hurt, betrayal and disappointment which kills even the deepest, most enduring love. Sensitive people gradually keep themselves away from the outside world whereas others go and join the crowd.
So what does the Bible say about God's unconditional Love?
Hosea 11: 1-4 and 8-9
“ The Lord says,” when Israel was a child I loved him and called him out of Egypt as my son.
But the more I called to him, the more he turned away from me.
My people sacrificed Baal, they burnt incense to idols.
Yet I was the one who taught Israel to walk.
I took my people up in my arms, but they did not acknowledge that I took care of them.
I drew them to me with affection and love. I picked them up and held them to my cheek.
I bent down to then and fed them.
How can I give you up, Israel? How can I abandon you?
Could I ever destroy you as I did Admah, or treat you as I did Zeboiim?
My heart will not let me do it!
My love for you is too strong. I will not punish you in my anger, I will not destroy Israel again.
For I am God and not man.
I, the Holy One, am with you.
I will not come to you in anger.”
You can only imagine the pain and the grief He must have felt watching the rebellious children of Israel going about their obsessed and selfish ways.
The symbol of Selfless Love
Guess who is considered as the next important person capable of selfless love!! Someone who is a part of our everyday life and cherished us from day one.
Yes, you guessed right. "Our Mothers".
As the quote goes:
“ God could not be everywhere and therefore he created Mothers.” - Rudyard Kipling
Mothers, a symbol of selfless love, endured pain through birth, suffered sleepless nights, taking care of the household activities even after their job even though they are drained out. Still never complained of the sufferings they endured. The jobs are often filled with unpleasantness, pain and sacrifice. These acts deepen the love for their children and enrich the lives in the process. They try hard to find pleasure in their sufferings. Their prayers keep the family strong and ongoing through life’s many ups and downs.
The love shown to us by our mothers is a medicine for healing wounds, not just from the time we were born but even during
the adulthood. In fact we never grow tired of having our mother around.
To say the truth, I have already run out of words and can only imagine the endless miracles they do in their everyday lives.
Our World needs Selfless Love
Imagine a world where everyone has turned evil and not a single good soul to help the wounded and the needy. Presently that is the state of the world, the cruel reality is already taking us there. Moral values have degenerated with the age of modern thinking.The world is more in need of good people capable of selflessness.
The emotion is quite rare among mankind, in the long run our world has misinterpreted the true meaning of selfless love. There are those who see it as an insult while others see it as a chance for taking advantage. This is however a sad and disturbing thought as this could inflict hurt and disappointment on the person capable of selfless love. You can expect him to never help another living soul ever again. Worse, some may not even recover from it.
In my lifetime, I have come across people who would call the generous ones foolish for helping others in times of need and for someone like me who was brought up in a good Christian family ,this has come as a huge shock. Though I was much younger at that time and was nowhere near to understanding the ways of the world,I realized I was going to have a tough time with people like these around me. So stubborn were their thoughts that they failed or never wanted to see the greener pastures. After all ,1+1 isn't always 2 for these people.
Though every human is capable of the divine power of selfless love, in some it is often covered up by a hard impenetrable wall- a wall of betrayal, hatred and disappointment experienced in the past which is another sad thought.
Statistics nowadays shows an increase in the number of psychological diseases all over the world. The stress everywhere are slowly on the rise mainly due to the family conflicts, everyday job and financial crisis. Increase in the intake of psychological drugs for depression and other mental diseases have taken centre stage. The world may have been worse in the past but it has become worst than ever. I believe this is the time period that the world is most in need of selflessness and every human needs it.
A message to the people who have never experienced selfless love:
“ You want to experience selfless love, look to the Crucifix”.
© 2016 Stephy Varghese Thazhone