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I'd Do Anything...
Jun. 8th, 2010 08:41 pmI was thinking today about how quick we are to promise big things to other people, and yet how hard it is sometimes to perform the smallest services with kindness. If you've ever been in love, for example, there is this welling-up of feeling inside. You feel like (and sometimes you say that) you would do anything for this person. Deserts that need crossing? No problem. Mountains that demand climbing? Of course! Seas to swim? Who cares if they're deep!
Big things, grand things, appeal to our desire to achieve. They appeal to our desire for greatness. If we crossed seas and mountains and deserts, surely then not only would our loved one know how amazing our love is...the world would know!
But when it comes to small things, those are often so much harder to grant. The socks that aren't picked up from the floor. The load of laundry you have to switch to the dryer when it's his turn. The errand you didn't want to run. Hopping out of bed to check that the door is locked. Changing the dirty diaper when you've changed three in a row and she doesn't seem to have noticed how unfair it is.
The small things range across the spectrum of human experience, but they all have one thing in common: they're unsung. No one is going to thank you for dirty sock retrieval. The diaper needs changed and you did it--but there are no heroic odes in your honor for it. I think ultimately that's where the rub lies.
The grand gestures are the ones we choose--and the ones that we expect will be compensated for with attention and appreciation. It's so much harder to do the little things that are just "expected"...and that will be met with no attention at all. And yet, surely, if we love that person, shouldn't we be as willing to do the little stupid things as the big dramatic ones? Shouldn't we be willing to set aside our desire for appreciation in order to perform some small task of love?
It's the same thing with God, really. It's so easy to promise the big things to Him: I'd do anything for you! Go on a mission! Change my lifestyle! Give a big charitable donation! But will you be nice to the person who's cranky? Will you show love to the person who gets on your last nerve? Will you choose kindness over your "rights" and mercy over justice?
Would you really do anything for the one you love?
Big things, grand things, appeal to our desire to achieve. They appeal to our desire for greatness. If we crossed seas and mountains and deserts, surely then not only would our loved one know how amazing our love is...the world would know!
But when it comes to small things, those are often so much harder to grant. The socks that aren't picked up from the floor. The load of laundry you have to switch to the dryer when it's his turn. The errand you didn't want to run. Hopping out of bed to check that the door is locked. Changing the dirty diaper when you've changed three in a row and she doesn't seem to have noticed how unfair it is.
The small things range across the spectrum of human experience, but they all have one thing in common: they're unsung. No one is going to thank you for dirty sock retrieval. The diaper needs changed and you did it--but there are no heroic odes in your honor for it. I think ultimately that's where the rub lies.
The grand gestures are the ones we choose--and the ones that we expect will be compensated for with attention and appreciation. It's so much harder to do the little things that are just "expected"...and that will be met with no attention at all. And yet, surely, if we love that person, shouldn't we be as willing to do the little stupid things as the big dramatic ones? Shouldn't we be willing to set aside our desire for appreciation in order to perform some small task of love?
It's the same thing with God, really. It's so easy to promise the big things to Him: I'd do anything for you! Go on a mission! Change my lifestyle! Give a big charitable donation! But will you be nice to the person who's cranky? Will you show love to the person who gets on your last nerve? Will you choose kindness over your "rights" and mercy over justice?
Would you really do anything for the one you love?
