Love in Action
“You must give what will cost you something. This, then, is not just giving what you can live without but what you can’t live without or don’t want to live without, something you really like. Then your gift becomes a sacrifice, which will have value before God. Any sacrifice is useful if it is done out of love. This giving until it hurts - this sacrifice - is what I call love in action.” ~Mother Teresa
A few years ago, a woman asked me why she should know anything about Palestinians refugees. She couldn’t do anything about their situation. She had a family to raise, and she had her own problems. I took a deep breath in, fighting the urge to lecture her, and calmly said, “You never know what you can do. Look at me, I’m not wealthy or unusually talented, but I made a choice and a commitment to use my rights to help others.”
Ignoring the truth is tempting, but it requires leaving your comfort zone and facing complex realities. Then the responsibility of sharing what you know and advocating in love for marginalized communities. Which may be counter-cultural and unpopular, ask me how I know. The cost might include character attacks, being misunderstood, and earning a reputation. Look at the comments on my TikTok page to see it in real time. But in the glaring spotlight of the suffering experienced by Palestinians, this is trivial.
You can affect the world for good, yes you. It takes individuals who dare to step out and fight the systems and institutions for justice.
Is the cost worth making a difference or not in this world?
Last summer, a kid contacted me who was in Kid’s Club. He found me on Instagram and sent me a message. Except he is not a kid anymore, he’s a young man in his twenties. I haven’t seen him since 2010. I think he was my favorite little boy from Kid’s Club. He was adorable and sweet. He reminded me of my first crush, Matt McBurney, who I sat next to every grade of elementary school because Mollner follows McBurney. I would make googly eyes at him for years, only to have him turn his nose up at me.
Anyway, I for sure had a little crush on this little Palestinian boy.
His message said, “I want to thank you for the attention and love that you and the rest of the teachers have given me.”
My heart melted. What an absolute grace for me to have him reach out twelve years later. He’s currently a DJ and artistic. He’s following his passion and dream, even though it’s a hard gig to have in Lebanon. You know that this means?
HE’S NOT ON THE STREETS!
HE DIDN’T CHOOSE VIOLENCE OR DRUGS!
KID’S CLUB MADE A DIFFERENCE IN HIS LIFE!
When you look back on your life, there is always someone who, with the simplest of actions, made you feel valued. As a child, mine was my second-grade teacher, bending down to my level, stroking my hair, and telling me who she saw me as. Receiving his message felt full circle to me.
I guess this cost, or as Mother Teresa said, love in action, is worth it. It might be the most real, meaningful thing you can do in life.
Over 25 years ago, the night before my first cancer surgery, I was on my knees, begging to have the cancer healed. I was hysterical because I was so scared at to what my life was going to amount to, nothing? To be sickly at age 27? I was bartering with God that I would do anything, because wanted my life to mean something.
I’m not sure what I believe about God answering prayers. I think suffering can help us understand and care about people who are different from us. Cancer changed my life and put me on a path to the Middle East, of all places! I am sincerely grateful. I found abundant life - beauty, pain, trauma, and purpose in the Middle East. I discovered my life is woven together, like the most spectacular tapestry, with the most unlikely of people.
The cost is the blessing.