Bankrupt

What truly makes us bankrupt? I know in these hard economic times everyone is thinking about their "bottom line." However I wonder how much that really matters? The situation of our financial lives, our things, our knowledge, our power, tells us nothing about our value or our worth. Millions of people have filed for bankruptcy. Sitting in the lawyer's office and signing those papers does not change their value one bit. They sit and scratch their name on a piece of paper and walk out. Nothing really changes. Millions have done it before them and millions will do it after them. The true value of their lives has not changed.

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

I Corinthians 13:1-7

I love the last line in this passage. No matter what! I can know everything there is to know. I can have all the "right" doctrine and memorize every verse of the Bible. I can be the richest person in the world, be the leader of the free world with all power, or be able to speak and write like no other. Without love I am bankrupt. Without love I am as annoying as a creaking rusty gate. With love I could be the greatest of super heros, but I am truly nothing, bankrupt, with love. My true value and worth only comes when I can love. When I can give my life away with love, this is when my life can matter and count for something. I must love all. I must love before anything. I must love despite anything. I must love to not be bankrupt.

Our challenge today is to love. Our challenge today is to love before and after all else. Our challenge today is to have a selfless, giving, sacrificial love as Jesus did and taught us to have through his life, death, and resurrection. Remember that Jesus said that "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Who are our friends? Anyone and everyone we encounter. Don't let yourself be truly bankrupt.

Namaste'