Article February 14, 1994 Issue

A love that counts

You may never know how your love touches the lives of others, but you can be sure it makes an important difference.

Robert A. Johnson

"It's basic! It's fundamental!" shouted the pastor from the pulpit. He tried so hard to get us to understand. But, alas, some of the mental soil he had to work with didn't seem very fertile. I think that is why he shouted when trying to make a point; he hoped to break through lazy or hardened attitudes. For some of us who knew him, though, it was his example more than his words that left a lasting impression.

As a young person, I could feel his love. I could see that he worked hard at his job and that he genuinely cared for his community. Each day he rose early to go to a cafe where working people gathered for their morning coffee, to offer a supportive word to anybody who needed one. When people in the town who didn't go to church needed a pastor, they often thought of him. He served his church, and his town, well for many years. His was a love that counted. It made a difference in his community. His example reminds me of Christ Jesus' promise "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35).

Mrs. Eddy also knew unselfish pastors who put a high priority on loving and helping their communities. Like the pastor of my youth, they were living proof that one's love for his neighbor is a measure of his love for God. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1901, thirty-five years after her discovery of Christian Science, she wrote: "Why I loved Christians of the old sort was I could not help loving them. Full of charity and good works, busy about their Master's business, they had no time or desire to defame their fellowmen. God seemed to shield the whole world in their hearts, and they were willing to renounce all for Him" (p. 32).

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