Give Attention
Selfishness is our default attitude. When a baby is born, she focuses all her attention on her needs. She is as needy as a person can be. She is completely reliant on the love of someone else for her health and safety. However, as she experiences the love of others, she learns the utility of love. She matures as she recognizes the benefits of the love that is given to her, and she learns to love.
Unless there is something wrong with us, we eventually become less needy than we were when we were children. Unless we allow ourselves to be overcome by some harmful addiction, we learn to work hard to provide for ourselves. We feed and clothe ourselves. We protect ourselves, accumulate accolades, seek pleasure, and fight for promotion. Even if we are not satisfied with ourselves, we love ourselves immensely. That is why Jesus tells us to love others as much as we love ourselves. That’s a lot of love.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
We naturally focus the majority of our attention on ourselves, but true love gives attention to others. We buy attention from servers at restaurants, from entertainers, and from babysitters. We pay employees to tend to our needs and help us pursue our goals. There is nothing wrong with this kind of attention, but this kind of attention cannot be described as love. As demonstrated in the temptation to pay for sex, loving attention is given, not paid for. That is why sex is meant to be contained within the fellowship of a committed relationship.
The lack of love in our world has led people to seek attention through claiming victimhood, dressing provocatively, and screaming for attention like a newborn baby. The common habit of young people in our world to gather to protest, strike, and riot is a cry for attention. It is often a demonstration of immaturity and self-focus, but occasionally it is an act of selfless love, of defending those who cannot defend themselves.
As Christians, we seek to give unearned attention to hurting people like a mother gives attention to her newborn daughter. My children did nothing to earn my love. I gave it to them enthusiastically before they were even born, and anything short of that would have been sinful neglect. I cannot imagine a more terrifying evil than a parent who intentionally harms his own child. That blatantly goes against God’s created order.
Plato asked us to consider if something is good because God commands it, or does God command it because it is good. The answer is “yes” to both options. God created the world with miraculous order and called it good, and for God’s creation to work properly, people must continually mature to become sacrificially loving.
The love of our world is not love at all. It is passion, emotion, and temporary satisfaction. True love is spiritual love. It is fulfilling, uplifting, and eternal. True love requires maturity, and as we mature spiritually, we learn to give attention to those who need to experience spiritual love.
In fact, the most mature Christians are those who have made loving people who need to be loved a top priority. They don’t wait for people to ask for love, then begrudgingly give it. They seek out people who have not experienced the sacrificial love of mature Christian faith. Jesus told many parables about giving attention to people who need love. Here is one:
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.
There is no greater pain than the pain of distance from God. That is Hell. You can numb that pain with the temporary pleasures of this world, but those things can only lead to dissatisfaction and depression.
As we look around our world and see people who are lost without eternal hope, it should motivate us to get out of our comfort zones, adjust priorities, and make sacrifices so that lost people can experience and benefit from the eternal love of God.
The Christian church is relentlessly tempted to become inwardly focused. In the story of the Prodigal Son and the Lost Sheep, Jesus demonstrates the importance of giving attention to lost people rather than focusing on ourselves.
Some sheep are lost intentionally. They ran from their shepherd to pursue something appealing on a different path. Some sheep are lost by accident. They got separated from the herd in a storm or when a predator attacked. Our world is full of lost sheep of both kinds.
The shepherd found more joy in finding the lost sheep because it was lost, not because the sheep was more beautiful or healthy. The shepherd’s love is generous and unearned. The sheep who remain with the herd experience the fellowship and protection of the herd, but without that protection the lost sheep’s time is short. The shepherd is motivated to bring the lost sheep into the fold so that it can grow into maturity.
Do you give attention to lost people who have not earned your love? Spend some time thinking about the people in your community that need to experience the unconditional love of Jesus. Pray for them, but don’t stop there. Do what the shepherd did. Go serve them. Give them attention.
