Whole-istic love

Go stand outside your front door. Look up and down the street.

You might see neatly mowed lawns, expertly crafted gardens, everything in bloom. Or, you might see weeds, overgrown lawns, a broken down car, the remnants of what might have been.

You might even see loneliness.

Loneliness, you say? Yes, loneliness. It is the common ingredient in every neighborhood, every town, city, and county.

A recent report from US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy found that loneliness and social isolation increase the risk of premature death by 30%. Murthy previously wrote about this in his book Together: The Human Power of Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World. In the book, Murthy tells how he and his team stumbled across the effects of loneliness while researching other diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, opioid abuse, depression, and anxiety. In nearly every instance, loneliness was a common factor that exacerbated the effects of these diseases exponentially.

Murthy goes on to point out how technology (especially social media) often drives loneliness because of the ways it effects communication. Where we used to have rich in-person connections, we now settle for texts, social media posts, and online forums. It goes without saying that such isolating factors have given way to political and ideological divides that seem nearly irreparable.

Photo by Sasha Freemind on Unsplash

In my book, Suffering, Soul Care, and Community: The Place of Lament in Corporate Worship, I reference Murthy’s work, as well as the work of Harvard history professor Jill Lepore, who wrote,

“Maybe what people experiencing loneliness and people experiencing homelessness both need are homes with other humans who love them and need them, and to know they are needed by them in societies that care about them. That’s not a policy agenda. That’s an indictment of modern life.”

Perhaps this is an indictment of the church?

Scripture abounds with such admonitions, not least of which was Jesus’ own declaration of his mission:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Luke 4:18 (NRSV)

I’m always struck by this bold claim because of how people-oriented it is. There is no mention of conquering kingdoms to gain the throne and force social change.

There is simply the call to love.

There is care on every human level: body, soul, spirit. Holistic, “whole-istic” love. It’s the motive for everything Jesus did, something we cannot deny.

Friends, we aren’t called to force change in our world. We are just called to love, to roll up our sleeves, to feed the hungry, to do the hard, long work of helping those who are bound to find freedom, whether that is literally or metaphorically. We are called to help those who are blind - again, literally, and especially metaphorically - to see again. To be about the work of binding oppression itself, instead of allowing it to do its insidious work in the lives of people and God’s good creation.

Murthy describes this work as “tipping the world towards love.” How beautiful. It’s what Jesus came to do, and it is our work.

Let love be the motivation.