Life is something you can’t just define. Checking the dictionary, one will be confronted with several explanations. But I decided for the purpose of these series to choose the simplest, which defines life “as a way or manner of living.” We all want the best out of life. Then, imagine how that best will be cherished if it comes free. Man has over the past paid heavily and is still willing to pay to get the best out of life. But it will shock you to learn that the real best things of life are just but free. In these series, we are going to explore those things and then proffer solutions on how to go about them. The essence is to show that every man, regardless of your background, education and profession has access to the best things of life. Regardless of your financial status, the best things of life are free; you do not need money to have them. What are these things? Okay, let’s begin to uncover them and as usual with my writings and teachings, we will go practical using real life stories. Sister Teresa, in 1948, was given permission to leave her Order of nearly twenty years and travel to India. On her first day in Calcutta, Teresa picked up five abandoned children and brought them to her “school.” Before the year ended, she had 41 students learning about hygiene in her classroom in a public park. Shortly thereafter, a new congregation was approved. Mother Teresa quickly named it “Missionaries of Charity.” Within two years, their attention had turned to the care of the dying. Once, a poor beggar was picked up as he was dying in a pile of rubbish. He was reduced by suffering and hunger to a mere specter. Mother Teresa took him to the Home of the Dying and put him in bed. When she tried to wash him, she discovered his body was covered with worms. Pieces of skin came off as she washed him. For a brief moment, the man revived. In his semi conscious state, he asked, “Why do you do it?” Mother Teresa responded with the two words that are her hallmark: “For love.” Augustine observed, “What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has the eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrow of men.”
Dear reader, does it cost money to love? With how much do you think an individual will use to buy agape love? Teihard de Chardin observed, “The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire.”
A story is told about a college professor who had his students check and evaluate the future of about 200 young boys from the ghetto. The students never gave any of the boys a chance, indicating in each boy, “He hasn’t got a chance.” Years later, another professor came across the earlier study and with his students followed up on the study. With the exception of 20 boys, 176 of them became lawyers, doctors and businessmen. The professor was surprised and decided to pursue the study further by interviewing some of the men. In each case, came the reply, “There was a teacher.”
Fortunately, the teacher was still alive, so the professor sought her out. The professor asked her what magic formula she had used to pull these boys out of the slums into successful citizens. The teacher’s eyes sparkled and her lips broke into a gentle smile. “It’s really very simple,” she said. “I loved those boys.”
It’s really very simple. It pays. There is this fulfillment within when we show acts of love. Abbe Felicite Robert remarked, “The heart of him who truly loves is a paradise on earth, he has God in himself.” Henry Drummond pondered, “You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love.”
A number of years ago, a young mother was making her way on foot across the hills of South Wales, carrying her tiny baby in her arms. The wintry winds were stronger than she anticipated and her journey took much longer than planned. Eventually, she was overtaken by a blinding blizzard. The woman never reached her destination. When the blizzard had subsided, those expecting her arrival went in search of her. After hours of searching, they finally found her body underneath a mound of snow.
As they shoveled the snow away from her frozen corpse, they were amazed to see that she had taken off her outer clothing. When they finally lifted her body away from the ground, they discovered the reason why. This brave and self-sacrificing young mother had wrapped her own cloak and scarf around her baby and then huddled over her child. When the searchers unwrapped the child, they found to their great surprise and joy that he was alive and well! Years later, that child, David Lloyd George, became Prime Minister of Great Britain, and is regarded as one of England’s greatest statesmen.
What could make a mother sacrifice her life for that of her baby? Love! Martin Luther King, Jr. observed, “Everybody can be great… because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” Martin Farquhar Tupper said, “Love is that sun against whose melting beams the winter stand. There is not one human being in a million, not a thousand men in all earth’s huge quintillion whose clay heart was hardened against love.”
A woman from one of the world’s poorest countries was visiting Toronto. While there, she saw a garage and enquired who lives there. When she was told it’s a house for the car, she was dumbfounded. She was shocked that people could afford not only a car but also a house to keep it inside. Her shock is understandable. It’s embarrassing to realize that some of us have so much while others have little. We go along, oblivious of the fact that people are dying.
You see, to love is something no one can take away from you. To love is very powerful. Emmet Fox said, “If you could only love enough, you could be the most powerful person in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi said, “Love is the strongest force the world possesses and yet it is the humblest imaginable. Having flung aside the sword, there is nothing except the cup of love which I can offer to those who oppose me.” Thomas A. Kempis remarked, “He does much who loves much.”
According to William Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice, mercy drops down like “gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed; it blesseth him that gives and him that takes.” Shakespeare was right about the double blessing that mercy provides. Our merciful deeds bless the person to whom we stretch out a loving kindness.
Everyone holding forth his own light, or using his one talent, no matter how small, will help accomplish God’s purpose on this earth. Pass on a portion of what you have today. If you have nothing but your own simple, goodwill, and joy, pass it on! You can make a difference. Leo Buscaglia remarked, “For a moment, love can transform the world. Love is life… and if you miss love, you miss life.”
Mother Teresa sums up thus: “Spread love everywhere you go: first of all, in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor… Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.”
Remember sometimes, the good that you do may very well come back to you in the form of the miracle you need. According to Helen Keller, “I am only one. But still I am one I cannot do everything. But still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
The key is in your hand. Use it!
Watch out for part two!
NB: First published November 2013