Christ like love

Christ like love is one of the things that I strive for everyday, but fail to reach most of the time.  It's a hard thing, this kind of love.  How hard?  Lay down your life kind of hard.  Jesus literally gave His life for us.  Now this isn't exactly what Jesus asks us to do, it may be, but for most of us in everyday live, it something a little different.  The kind of love I'm talking about means laying down your life moment by moment for those God has put in your life.  Each moment, He is asking us to serve Him or serve ourselves by doing what our flesh desires.

Loving like Christ is hard.  It means putting the needs of others above the your own needs.  This is a completely inhuman thing to do. We were made to serve ourselves, and some would argue that everything we do has some benefit or motive that will serve us.  But I disagree.  I have seen this kind of love in action, and it one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

This past week, one of my friends lost someone they loved very much, and the Christ like love I witnessed in response reminded me that there is Hope in good times and bad.  I got to watch as people who love this girl dropped everything.  They laid down their lives to support and love exactly like Christ did.

This is exactly what Jesus was calling us to do in the Cross.  He bears our burdens, but He also asks us to lay down our lives and take up the burdens of those around us.  He asks us to forget ourselves and imitate Him.  He breaks our hearts for those suffering on this earth so that we may feel the pain and love He feels.  In the darkness that surrounds these burdens, there is pure love.  This love is one of our highest callings.

but it doesn't say fairtrade in the bible

For you Catholics out there, this shouldn't be a very large road block. We love tradition, and not saying a word in the bible doesn't mean a thing (purgatory anybody?). So yes, the term Fairtrade, like Purgatory, is fairly new, so we're clear; Jesus didn't tell us to buy fairtrade.

But wait....I think he did t.ell us something else

Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me. ~ Matthew 25:40 

Thus says the LORD: Do what is right and just. Rescue the victim from the hand of his oppressor. Do not wrong or oppress the resident alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. ~ Jeremiah 22:3

Open your mouth in behalf of the dumb, and for the rights of the destitute; Open your mouth, decree what is just, defend the needy and the poor! ~ Proverbs 31:8-9

I could list so many more. Jesus said to help the needy and to defend the rights of those who can't defend themselves. Jesus, who became man to show us the way to Heaven, says we must do these things. His words aren't a pick and choose kind of thing; they are law. Love your neighbor as yourself; do unto others as you you have them do unto you. These are beaten into us at an early age.

And we do, in many cases, follow this highest rule. We give to the homeless, give money to church, volunteer in the classroom, and hold a door open. But, then there are so many times we do not. When Jesus said neighbor, he did not only mean the person living in the house beside you. He meant everybody. He meant the child making shoes on the other side of the world and the mom to four sewing designer jeans for 12 hours a day as well as the person living next door to you.

By buying products that are made by the modern day slaves, we are doing the opposite of what Jesus has commanded us to do. We are taking their rights away.

Maybe just one person buying one product is not going to change the whole system but then again, the shepherd went back for the one lost sheep. Every purchase is only a drop in the ocean, but without every drop there would be no ocean.