"What the World Needs..."

What the world needs now, is love sweet love.  It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of. - Lyrics by Hal David

I’ve had this song stuck in my head all day.  Tired and worn down from the on-going violence and tragedy in the news and the vitriol and hatred filling public discourse, my brain pulled up this simple message of yearning for a more loving world from a time before I was born.  

Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote this song in response to the conflict in Vietnam.  The chorus is a simple statement of longing for a better world, but David wrote the verses of the song as a prayer.  In them the singer asks God to improve the state of the world not with more mountains or beautiful meadows, but with more love - love that extends not just to a few, but to all people.  This is the prayer of my heart for our world today, as well.

Talking about the power of love can be written off as trite or sentimental by some.  But as Christians, our faith is grounded in the power of love, in God’s gift of love to the world (John 3:16).  It was because of love that God sent Jesus to the world as an embodiment of that same love.  Jesus’ entire life and ministry was sharing and living out God’s love for the world and showing us what that love looks like - feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, welcoming the outcast and the stranger.  The call of discipleship is a call to participate in that love with our lives - sharing it with others in all that we say and do.

There are a lot of scary things happening right now and it can be overwhelming.  But in the face of all of it, what the world needs now - what the world has always needed - is love.  And love is something that we have been given in abundance and that we have each  been called to share.

• Share love by building connection in response to divisiveness - bring a loaf of banana bread to a neighbor, start up a conversation with someone at the store
• Share love by speaking truth in response to lies, not allowing any people to be dehumanized or demonized
• Share love by supporting organizations that are helping the community and advocating for the oppressed
• Share love by calling or writing your representatives to speak on behalf of your immigrant neighbors and your trans neighbors
• Share love by listening to someone who is scared or hurting - holding a hand, giving a hug
• Share love by paying attention and looking out for the neighbor in your community
• Share love by making music and art, creating beauty and participating in God’s divine creativity

Share love whenever and however you can, because that is who we are - who we were created to be.  Share love, because it is how we are called to live as followers of Jesus.  Share love, because that is what the world needs now.  No, not just for some, but for everyone.