Perhaps one of the greatest things lacking in our world is not knowledge, money, technology, or resources, but love—the kind of love that makes us genuinely care about other people, their property, their needs, their dignity, and their future.
Many everyday problems—waste, neglect, exploitation, indifference, conflict, and injustice—are ultimately connected to a shortage of genuine love and the failure to treat what belongs to others, and other people themselves, with the same care we expect for ourselves.
Consider some of the simple issues of love that people struggle with every day:
When it is not yours—perhaps a rented car, a rented house, or another item—how do you use it? How much do you care for it?
Simple things like firewood you did not go to collect, electricity and water you did not pay for, food you did not buy, and other household items you did not purchase: do you handle them with the same care you would if you had bought them with your own money?
Office equipment and public utilities: do you care for them as much as you would care for what belongs personally to you?
The way you treat others: is it the way you would want to be treated if you were in their circumstances?
When others fail or make mistakes, how do you feel about them, and how do you handle them? Is it exactly how you would want to be handled if you were the one who failed?
When you are in need, how would you love to be treated? And when others are in need, how do you treat them?
Internationally, when we say, “my country” and “my citizens,” do we also care about people of other countries and treat them with the dignity, fairness, and concern that we expect for ourselves?
Perhaps the most urgent issue before humanity is therefore the love issue.
If we genuinely loved our neighbours, we would care about what belongs to them.
We would care about public resources.
We would not rejoice in another person's failure.
We would show compassion when someone is in need.
We would seek justice not only for ourselves, but also for others.
We would extend the same concern beyond our families, communities, and nations.
Love does not merely mean having good feelings toward people. Love changes how we behave toward them.
Jesus gave us a simple principle that could transform families, workplaces, communities, nations, and international relations:
“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
— Luke 6:31
Perhaps what our world needs most is not another complicated formula, but a return to this simple command: love others as we would want to be loved, and treat others as we would want to be treated.
The greatest missing ingredient may be love—and the greatest opportunity for change may begin with each one of us.
~ Elijah Mutua Kirima
Pastor and Social Worker
THE WORD OF GOD IS THE WILL OF GOD.
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