Choosing to Care

Today is day 10 of a 31 day blogging challenge with my friend and colleague reverendmommy, Robin Fitzgerald.We will be using a daily word prompt from katemotaung.com.

It is said, “People don’t care how much you know; until they know how much you CARE.”  I have found that to be completely true in ministry.  I loved my studies at Duke Divinity School and appreciate the attention given to scriptural exegesis and sound theology.  I learned to think and speak in a way consistent with Wesleyan theology.  The people I have encountered in ministry are not as interested in my knowledge of fancy theological terms as they are in my ability to love them.  People in the pew really long to know that I will hold their hand as they say goodbye to their parent, embrace them when their child has been diagnosed with cancer, cry alongside of them when share the diagnosis from their doctor, or sit with them and listen as their marriage is falling apart.

 I am humbled to be invited into those tender moments in people’s lives.  I remember standing in the hall way of Cleveland Regional Hospital the day two teenage boys realized their mom’s cancer was causing her body to shut down.  I reached my arms out and hugged them both.  Tears streamed down our cheeks.  There were no words that could ease their pain.  Their mom was dying; all they needed was love and care.    

"The greatest of these is love."  1 Corinthians 13

 

I value my education, and I am grateful to serve in a denomination that values and requires a theological education for ordination.  But all the education in the world cannot over shadow the power of love.  Paul says it like this, “If I speak in tongues of mortals or angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol.” (1 Corinthians 13:1).  I choose to love.  I choose to care.