get in shape
“Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39)
I don’t know if you’ve ever had this misunderstanding, but for many years when I read the words in this verse, I would reinterpret them in my brain as “Love your neighbor,” leaving off the last two key words, “as yourself.” Anagrams I encountered in my youth like “J-O-Y = Jesus – Others – You” only compounded my misunderstanding. I’ve come to realize over the years that while it sounds very noble and good to focus on loving others, it isn’t the full picture of what Jesus said to do. He instructed us to love others as ourselves, i.e. to love others in the same manner in which we love ourselves. The Message version puts it this way: “Love others as well as you love yourself.” If we are generous in loving ourselves, we will be able to love others generously. If we are stingy or neglectful in loving ourselves, we won’t be able to love others well. We can’t give what we don’t have.
That’s not to say that we should live narcissistic and conceited lives. That’s not love. Love is beautifully defined for us in 1 Corinthians 13, and has nothing to do with self-absorption, and everything to do with God’s nature. God is in His very essence – love.
One of the banes of our existence in the 21st century is our ability to artificially prop ourselves up for extended periods of time in order to cover over our neglectful ways of not loving ourselves properly. Not getting enough sleep? Drink more coffee! Too busy to spend much time with loved ones? Have quality time! Too many things on the schedule? Multitask! Can’t fit in a “quiet time”? Do it on the fly! Too rushed to prepare healthful meals? Take more vitamins! Sooner or later these things will catch up with us and we’ll find our wells depleted. Jesus promised believers that “streams of living water will flow from within” us. This living water is for us and for others. Let’s get in shape by loving ourselves well so that as we encounter others along our courses, we’ll have something to give them – God’s water of life.
