Comedy & Tragedy

Comedy is when you slip on a banana peel and fall on your butt. Tragedy is when I slip on a banana peel and fall on my butt.

Why is it that, when something happens to someone else, it seems like such a minor thing, but when it happens to me, all of a sudden, it’s the end of the world? Seems like I’ve gotten my priorities out of whack somewhere along the line.

I know that I get so wrapped up in my own so-called problems that I can be completely oblivious to someone who is truly hurting. My minor inconvenience somehow takes precedence over another human’s pain. If I were to truly take an objective look at my life, I’d have to conclude that it’s not so bad. I have a roof over my head, food to eat, friends to lean on, and a job to provide finances. That’s more than a lot of people have. So why is it that, when I have a little extra responsibility tossed my way, inwardly I want to whine about it and cry, “It’s not fair! I didn’t sign up for this!” In that context, I seem kind of selfish and spoiled.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He responded, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40) I’ve been thinking about these verses a lot lately. I’ll write more on the first part of it later, but for now, I want to focus on the second part. Love your neighbor as yourself. Easier said than done.

How do I go about loving someone else like I love myself? I mean, don’t we live in a society where we’re all expected to live for ourselves, and to heck with the rest of the world? That’s how it seems most of the time. But Christ would have us take a different route.

Christ himself said that, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) There are darn few people for whom I’d take a bullet, but there are a few that come to mind. But there’s more to this than life and death. Let’s rephrase it this way; for whom would I be willing to inconvenience myself if they were in need? The list grows a little. Not as much as it probably should, but it does lengthen a bit.

So my prayer is this: God, let me see others as you see them. Not as a drag on my time and energy, not as a diversion on my way to my own goals. Rather, let me see people as Your kids. As fellow humans beings who are hurting, probably far more than me. And let me be Your instrument in their lives, though it may seem inconvenient to me, because You sent Your boy to die so that I might live, and I can’t imagine a greater inconvenience than that. Help me put my preferences aside and put other people’s needs above my own.