I received an inspirational story in e-mail some time ago that I felt was worth sharing here. While it may be fictional, it really is a testament to the power of unconditional love….
—————————————————————————————————————
There once was a man who was sentenced to death. Before he was taken away, the condemned man begged the king, “Please allow me three days’ time to put my affairs in order and to make sure that my family is taken care of.”
“How will I know that you will come back?” asked the king. Almost immediately, the condemned man’s best friend raised his hand and said, “I will take his place. If he doesn’t come back, you can hang me instead.”
Three days passed, and the condemned man had not returned. When it came time for the hanging, the king’s guards turned to the man who had offered himself as a substitute and said, “You will have to take his place.”
Just before the noose was slipped over the man’s head, a voice suddenly rang out in the distance. “I’m here! I’m here! Stop! Stop!” The condemned man ran forward from the crowd to take his rightful place on the gallows.
At this point, however, the friend had already made up his mind to die in the first man’s stead. “You were late,” he said. “So maybe this was meant to be my destiny. You have a family who needs you. I’m alone, already here and ready to go.”
The two friends argued back and forth, each one choosing to die for the other. Seeing this, the king declared a stop to the hanging, saying, “My sentence was meant for one man, but I see that if I were to kill one of you it would be as though I were killing two people. Both of you can go free.”
—————————————————————————————————————
The point of this story is that each friend was willing to face death for each other and through that act of love, it moved the king’s heart enough to set them both free. For any of us to grow spiritually in life though, it doesn’t necessarily require something this profound to take place either. Nor is it mandatory to diligently attend some form of weekly worship service, study a religious book, or pray fervently. While each of those can hold an important part of one’s spiritual journey, the more decisive actions that help to place us on that path is when we tap into our time, money, or talents and offer them unconditionally to others.
It’s easy for all of us to be in a receive mode, but there are many opportunities every day for us to extend ourselves lovingly to others in a selflessly giving one. A few days ago I was at a light waiting for it to change and there was a homeless man standing there in the steamy heat of the day with a cardboard sign asking for money. The unspiritual, unloving, and selfish me would have thought the person should get a job or that they are going to just take any money they get and go buy alcohol or drugs. But the spiritual and loving me that I’m trying to become today has removed much of those judgments and took action by giving a dollar out of my pocket to the man and telling him “God bless” as I drove away. None of us know just how profound even something like this smallest action of unconditional love could change a person’s life.
And while the story I originally shared above is an extreme example of how an act of unconditional love held great depth and weight, it is a parable that was written by someone to show the potential of love within all of us. Maybe each of us could start seeing that same potential within ourselves by shifting some of our thinking away from what God’s love can do for us in this world, and focusing that energy instead on what actions we can take to start unconditionally loving all of God’s people a lot more.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
