In 1986, Jake Garn a Republican United States Senator from Utah, did the unthinkable: he volitionally gave away a part of his body to someone else. Ok, it wasn’t just to anybody, but it’s still an amazing thing considering that 78% of Americans say they would be an organ donor, yet only 13% sign the dotted line. Senator Garn’s daughter, Susan, was suffering from progressive kidney failure due to aggressive diabetes and was in desperate need of a kidney. Without hesitation, her father stepped up and at the age of 55, he gave her one of his. On September 10, 1986, he underwent a 6-hour operation, cut from his ribs to his spine, and was left in tons of pain due to the procedure. But the greatest attention-getter was not so much the procedure but the comment from his surgeon at a national press conference. When asked how the senator was, the doctor replied, “The senator is awake, he has a grin on his face, and he seems to be very self-satisfied and happy and peaceful.” That grin described by the doctor could only mean one thing: No regrets! Senator Garn's daughter who was 27 at the time said, “He gave me something better than a kidney, and even better than giving me life, he gave me love.”

Love makes it possible for people to do the most dreaded of things without second guesses, without looking back, and with no regrets. If there is anything this world needs right now, it is love. Both the reception and the reciprocation of it. Everywhere we turn we see that regardless of the color of a person’s skin, the status in which they grew up socially, or the economic circumstance they have been exposed to, they feel the need to be loved. There is a primitive and natural inclination in every human that has a deep desire to love someone and be loved by someone in return. It’s a fundamental aspect of every human and ‘to love and be loved’ is rooted deep within our emotional and psychological well-being. The older I get the more I realize that love is not just an emotional luxury but it’s a vital necessity, and I believe that it was placed there by God.

One day a man who was full of religion but empty in life thought it would be entertaining to try and trip Jesus up concerning the 613 laws that his religious order lived by. This particular Pharisaical lawyer who was proficient in the law, was a hair-splitting legalist bent on confusing Jesus in an attempt to make Him look bad. So, the Pharisee asked, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” And, the answer that Jesus gave him was not what he bargained for! He quoted the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 6 when He replied, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all heart, and with all they soul, and with all thy might.” I imagine as the lawyer looks up being surprised, Jesus barely misses a beat or a breath when He concludes, “This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” A Pharisee looks at the Son of God and says, “Let’s talk about the law” and the Son of God looks at the religious leaders of the day and says, “Let’s talk about love.” Love God. Love others. Love yourself.

It is interesting to me that Jesus says that the greatest commandments are so intricately woven together that you cannot discuss one without talking about the others. The commandment is relatively clear in its implications. If the vertical love we profess to have for God doesn’t line with the horizontal love we have for others, then something is wrong with our understanding of love. It's the most concise and inclusive statement that Jesus ever gave us regarding what life is all about. Loving God and loving others. What does it matter if a church has a beautiful building, if it doesn't know how to love the people who come into it? Do Sunday School numbers and student and children’s ministries even matter, if we know not love? We can have perfectly tuned orchestras and choirs with pitch-perfect harmonies, but if we don’t love then we have missed the primary ingredient of our life.

Jesus simplifies our love in 3 areas: Love God. Love others. And love yourself. A declaration of loving God is a matter of keeping His commandments. To obey His rules and laws. It’s good to remember that loving God is not a warm fuzzy feeling, it’s doing what we know God expects of us. The demand of loving others is specifically to love our neighbor. Our neighbors are not those who live in a geographical location beside or near us, they are those who are within our proximity and are conspicuously in need. It is in this context that Jesus tells us of a Good Samaritan who was willing to cross racial lines and help a hurting Jew. We must learn ourselves and teach our children to learn to love others beyond all racial, social, and economic lines. Lastly, there is a duty to love ourselves. Not in an egotistical self-centered way but in a healthy way that honors God. It's accepting that I am created in the image of God and I should love exactly who God made me to be. Each of us is unique and special in how God made us! We often treat others in the same way we treat ourselves. And if we are uncertain about our worth, we will be uncertain of the worth of others. We should use the one life we have to fulfill the greatest commandment that Jesus ever gave: Love God with all your heart. Love your neighbor like you love yourself. On these commandments hang every other law. That's real talk about love.