Called to care …

It would be the greatest of contradictions for a child of God to ever utter (or think), “I don’t care.”

Jesus cared!

He cared for those who followed Him and even those who didn’t. He cared for those who loved Him, and even those who didn’t. He cared for those who worship Him, and even those who don’t.

The greatness of God’s grace toward us is that He CARES about us!

Caring — not in an abstract or intellectual form, but care demonstrated in action — is the visible display of love, and Jesus taught us that the most important of all the commands God has for us is to Love God foremost, and then to love others.

Love shows itself through the action of caring.

I wrote a book that is required reading for a university course on relational evangelism. Chapter one has surprised many students because it’s on the topic of caring. If we care about the souls of others — if we love others, if we CARE — we’ll act to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. If we don’t, we won’t.

I’m an instructor for the single best training available anywhere for couple communication. All of the research done to create this training points to a key attitude that is displayed in our communication behaviors that makes the most difference in the outcome of our communication — the attitude of caring or uncaring.

Caring always acts in love!

It can be easy to just observe lives and not care because that’s the easiest thing to do. But when we care, we are provoked to act in the best interest of others. Merrill McIlwain tells a story that captures this idea of how caring motivates us to act in the best interest of others …

The beach was alive with movement. Hundreds of baby sea turtles wriggled out of the sand to begin their life’s journey. Laura and her family joined the crowd under the glowing moon and watched in astonishment as tiny turtles, each the size of a silver dollar, emerged from the sand. But the excitement soon turned to concern. The babies didn’t head toward the ocean. Instead, they crawled the opposite direction – toward the city. Misled by the false light of the city, hundreds of tiny turtles inched their way toward the sand dunes where they would face certain death the next morning under the scorching sun.

A local resident, who had seen this happen before, instructed everyone to get flashlights. Laura and her brother ran back to the house, grabbed their flashlights and returned. Not caring if their shoes got wet, they stood ankle deep in the surf and focused the beams of their flashlights on the little turtles. One by one the turtles began turning. The brightness of the flashlights steered the turtles away from danger and toward the life-giving ocean.

Like those tiny little turtles that were so easily misled by the lights of the city, we all know of human beings who are headed away from Christ rather than toward Him. God has called us to CARE, and to be the lights who attract these lost souls to turn to God …

“And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’” 2 Corinthians 5:18-20.

If you CARE about others — if you love others — your actions will demonstrate real care. What do YOUR actions say about you?

Scotty