I Care

I CARE

If you have a Facebook account you may be familiar with the care emoji. When I first saw this I thought it was lame; 'I don't like it or love it; I just care'. But I actually found myself using it for the first time recently when someone posted something sad. I realized that's when the care emoji comes in handy. If someone posts something troublesome or painful, it's not appropriate to click like or love. In the past I would either make a comment or just kept it moving. But now we have an option that expresses care and concern. But obviously being a caring person goes way beyond clicking the care emoji on a Facebook post. Let's see what we can learn today that will help us to be more caring.

1) I don't care.

Jesus told a parable in Luke 18 that focused on our need to pray and not give up. But within this parable we notice something about the subject of caring-really the lack thereof.

Luke 18:2-5, "He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’ ”

We could easily get all over this judge for being cruel and cold-hearted but I think it's important to look at this and ask ourselves, 'how many times have I done something like this'? Have you ever done anything out of a sense of duty or obligation or, like in this case, just to get someone off your back?

This woman deserved justice but the one who could do something about it didn't care to. That's interesting, here he is, a judge, put in place to serve those who had a legitimate claim for justice, yet he didn't care about people, nor did he care about God. I don't know why this guy wanted to be a judge, but in any event, he was.

But when you think about it, how many people have you come across in certain positions of care that didn't really care? There are school teachers, medical staff, elected officials, even pastors, that make it pretty clear they don't care. We take into account that people in these positions can have a bad day now and then, but I'm talking about those who have shown a pattern of not caring.

Why they hold the position they do is beyond me but there they are. As Jesus calls this judge unjust for his uncaring attitude, he would no doubt say the same to those who are supposed to care but don't.

What about us? Has the Holy Spirit ever moved you to act on someone's behalf or help them in some way but you put it off? You know you should help but it will involve time and effort and you're just not feeling it. In your mind you say you care but do you really?

I know there are times when we care but we're not able to do something, but what about the times when we can help but we don't? And then there are the times when we finally do help, but only because we know we should, not because we really care. Helping is better than not helping, but helping because we care is much better.

Judas was someone who acted like he cared, but didn't. Jesus and the disciples were at a dinner given in Jesus' honor. Mary, Lazarus' sister, took a pint of expensive perfume, poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped them with her hair. Judas didn't like that.

John 12:4-6, "But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.’” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it."

Have you ever seen this in action? Someone comes across like they care but there's an ulterior motive at work? Politicians act like they care but it's only to secure votes. Businesses act like they care but it's only to sell a product. Media outlets act like they care but it's only to boost ratings. A person can make a sincere sounding apology but it's only to avoid further trouble. I'm not saying this is true across the board for any of these groups, but it does happen. Sometimes people are not as sincere and caring as they portray themselves to be.