Wasting time to love

A ‘people’ born from the Gospel, and now present all over the world, also includes children who share the spirituality of unity and live it out in their daily lives. During their most recent International Meeting, a young Korean girl asked Chiara Lubich: “You teach us to give generously, but I do not really have many things to give away. What should I do?”

[...]The answer developed into a colorful booklet that illustrates the many ways of giving:Lending a pencil; giving a hand to your mother or father; teaching a new game to someone; listening to someone who is talking; giving an answer kindly; giving a piece of your snack to someone; saying “Good morning” and meaning it; forgiving; giving a smile; giving help to someone in need; keeping someone company; giving a gift; giving a hand; giving joy; sharing some good news (…)

I am always struck by the simplicity of the answer to the question: How can I best love my neighbour? A smile will do or holding a door open for someone, or simply asking” How are you?” and mean it. Take time to love my neighbour, because the time I give God will give me back if I need it. All too often I have too much to do, to love and yet God has put me where I am to be his expression of love for my neighbour! I imagine it is a bit like a car mechanic who has lots of tools with particular functions (or talents) and together they can repair the car. If on tool decided it had to do other things the car would not be fixed. So, am I too busy to love, because it is my own things I want to follow? In my experience yes. And I understand what is necessary to do, if I freely share with others how I intend to love today. Together I learn to be free to love, to “waste time” together so that at the end of the day I can look at how many people have I love as opposed to how many items on my to do list have I ticked. The first will surely get me closer to God, the second probably farther away from him!