Stay Salty: True Love

TRUE LOVE will make us salt and light in our culture today. Speaking the truth in love and truly loving people will help us shine in a dark world.

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

A month before my oldest son was born, Jen and I were in New York for the wedding of my best friend. Shortly after we landed, I was rushed to the hospital and spent a week jacked up on morphine and undergoing non-stop bloodwork tests, probing and a host of other entertaining procedures. To this day, I can’t believe how brave and stalwart Jen was through the ordeal, and I’m forever grateful to my dad, who flew out to support us for several days.

This was one of a few significant health challenges we had to navigate over the years. As someone who, frankly, doesn’t like hospitals or medical procedures much, these experiences have opened my eyes to a few things. The one I want to talk about today is the power of true love.

My interactions with medical professionals have led me deeply to appreciate the difference between doctors who are “punching the clock” and doctors who have a true love, respect and compassion for the people they treat. As you might imagine, doctors who exhibit such qualities are able to operate with a qualitatively different level of excellence and effectiveness than those who only possess technical proficiency.

They elicit trust in their patients. That trust opens the door to more effective communication. That effective communication can lead to more insight and awareness as they seek to diagnose and treat their patients. I’ve seen all of this up close and personal.

Certainly, no one wants a “loving” doctor who lacks competence! But a doctor with true skill and real love is much more than a medical professional. He or she is a healer, capable of stepping into a crisis situation and mirroring the healing heart of our Father.

This “true love” is willing to be unflinchingly honest with a patient. Perhaps an unhealthy lifestyle has led the person to this crisis point. Perhaps a horrifying diagnosis must be delivered. Perhaps a life-altering treatment is the only option. A good doctor will share this truth. If he or she tries to hide or sugar coat truth, the patient might face much graver consequences. Love is willing to speak truth.

However, love speaks that truth in a way that brings hope, invites trust, expresses a belief in the person, and points them to the Father’s heart of love for them! It does not bring condemnation. It does not discount. It does not dehumanize. It doesn’t stand on a soapbox and deliver sermons. It offers solutions.

Of course, I’ve moved out of the medical realm analogy at this point. As carriers of The Way, The Truth, and The Life, we are called to be healers in our world. The message of salvation is meant to bring redemption, reconciliation and real-world healing into the lives of the people we encounter.

I can’t imagine a doctor who despises his patients would gain much trust (or repeat customers!). How could believers ever imagine reaching a lost world if we harbor disgust for the people we are called to reach?

Our ability to minister healing to lost souls will flow out of our direct experience of the Father’s love for us. When we experience His grace and loving discipline first-hand (not simply as a concept or doctrine), our hearts become conduits through which that true love can flow out into the lives of others.

Many of us are wired towards one side of True Love or the other. In other words, many “truth” people can get caught up in concepts and lose sight of individuals. Many “love” people can forget that living in falsehood leads to deception and suffering. Self-awareness about our personal “bent” in this is important.

Are we cloaking our fear of speaking truth in robes of “love”? If so, then it’s not true love. Are we masking a loveless heart behind a “I’m just telling it like it is” attitude? If so, then it really isn’t true Truth (because God, the great Lover, is Who defines truth).

Friends, you are the salt of the world. You are the light of the world. I pray this mini-series of articles on what makes us distinct has been a blessing to you! If it has, then I’d encourage you to invite a friend to subscribe to this weekly publication!