We need more love in the world
- Kyle Snyder: Live on Purpose
- February 13, 2025
- 418
“Faith, hope and love are some of the good things he gave us, and the greatest is love.”
—Alan Jackson
The more I live, the more I understand Jesus’ calling to love one another. I don’t know if I meet the requirements to be called a pacifist, but nonviolence seems to me to be the better solution. If Martin Luther King would have responded with hate, how different would America be? Civil rights were made possible on the bedrock of love. In fact, some people thought Dr. King needed to fight fire with fire, but he knew by taking the high road, he would win more people to his side.
It seems like today people just want to pay people back for the bad things those people did to them. However, no one really wins in that scenario. We feel good paying people back for wrongs that they inflicted on us, but at the same time, we would never view ourselves on the same level as them. I can’t understand how we can justify hurting people who hurt us. I emotionally understand it is nice to get revenge, but the part I struggle with is getting on their level. Please understand me: I love seeing people get what they have coming to them, but I am still a work in progress.
People want the world to change, but they won’t do their part to bring about the change. We can’t just hope the world will be more loving; we must be more loving ourselves.
I think about the story of a long line at one grocery store. They opened more checkouts, but no one moved. The store manager got on the PA system and announced more checkouts where open, but still no one moved. Finally, he went up to people in line and told them there were other checkouts with no one in line. To his amazement everyone told him they would rather wait in line. Some even told him this was the highlight of their day.
They were there to see Johnny. He wondered why people would wait in a long line just to see the bag boy. A few weeks earlier, the store had a person come in to speak to the employees. The employees were told people love a kind word. Johnny took this to heart. Every night he looked up a quote and copied it hundreds of times. He cut each one into little strips, and when he was done bagging, he put the quote on top. Then he looked them in the eye and added he loved bagging groceries for them and put a small treat in the bag.
We need more people like Johnny in this world. So who can you be a Johnny to this week?