Unconditional Love

 

 

What do I know about it?

Little, if anything,

What’s the quality of my practice?

In this, I am lacking.

 

Sounds kind of hollow

Whenever I hear it,

My example and what daily I see

Is a not a habit.

 

I still struggle with self

More than I should

And tell me if I could do better

You know I would.

 

Yes, I often talk to myself

Trying to convince me

That I am doing the best I can

But not truthfully.

 

Unconditional love

What is your grade?

I can tell you that as for myself,

Mine is a FAIL!

 

Don’t you begin to think

I am hard on myself

For of all the photos in my mind

I’m # 1 on my shelf.

 

You may say I am honest

Given my analysis

Because I have openly confessed

I am first on my list.

 

But admitting to guilt

Should not me excuse

Or anyone else, for that matter,

If the wrong they choose.

 

It is practically not easy:

Unconditional love,

Though Jesus demonstrated it

When he came for above.

 

 

There is absolutely no self

In unconditional love,

For you that scored yourself high

That’s what I’m talking of.

 

I am seeing the adjustment

You are already making,

Unconditional love is about giving

Far more than taking.

 

Now create two columns:

Under “Giving and Taking”

And show me that you give more

Than you rake in.

 

Do not include your bills

Or even your tithes:

Women, don’t include your husbands

Or husbands, your wives.

 

Check the good Samaritan

Back in the Bible time,

This was unconditional love;

He wasn’t just kind.

 

 

He risked his own life

For his life-long foe,

Very unlike the Levite and priest

Who no concern showed.

 

Unconditional love

Isn’t who is my neighbour

But rather, and fundamentally so,

Am I a neighbour?

 

Note the lawyer’s question:

“Who is my neighbour?”

And note Jesus’ pedagogical approach

In cluing him the answer.

 

Don’t ask the question

Who is my neighbour

But do the introspection and ask:

Am I a neighbour?

 

Luke 10:37

 

And he said,

He that shewed mercy on him.

Then said Jesus unto him,

Go, and do thou likewise.

 

Romans 5:7-8

 

For scarcely for a righteous man

Will one die:

Yet peradventure for a good man

Some would even dare to die.

 

But God

Commendeth his love toward us,

In that, while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us.

 

Herein then,

Is unconditional love:

That Jesus Christ gave up all,

Even heaven above.

 

Stewart Russell © November 28, 2024