I will greet this day with love in my heart. That is the first line from the second scroll of Og Mandino’s book The Greatest Salesman in the World. I first read that book as a newly licensed insurance agent, venturing into the arena of Medicare insurance. I had joined a group of agents working under a General Agency run by one “seasoned” agent. He had weekly sales meetings (ugh!) that always started with a reading from this book, which I came to embrace more as a spiritual foundation, parallel to my religious upbringing and beliefs, than a guidebook for making lots of sales.
Despite these compelling scrolls that we read each week, that “head” agent was discovered to have engaged in fraudulent and nefarious acts to the detriment of the very people with whom I aspired to serve. Of course, that was the end of being connected with him, and any agency other than my own.
Jesus is Love. Whether He was turning water into wine, healing the sick (sight unseen), turning tables over in the temple, forgiving a woman of her sins, or healing one who touched the hem of His garment, His every act was born of love. In love, Jesus met people in the circumstances in which they were. He had no prerequisite before responding to “Lord, have mercy” or deciding to invite Himself to dinner at the home of the most hated tax collector. The way to the cross was strewn with people in all kinds of need. The need, while manifested by hunger, sickness, sin, condemnation of others, or loneliness, was in essence for His love. As is ours. As is mine.
Having little routine outside of Sunday worship, Midtown Midweek on Wednesdays, a weekly networking meeting, and Friday evenings with my Grand Pea, the week is wide open for all kinds of possibilities. And possibilities abound. The way to the cross is not a one-day-at-a time but a one-step-at-a-time journey. Along the way there will likely be more like the five foolish virgins than five wise ones. There will be those whose immediate need far outweighs the possibility of a business transaction. Knowing the rules by which I am bound, providing food may preclude gaining a new client. (Some choices are just obvious.)
He created me out of love. That is why I choose to greet each day with love in my heart. To do so is to follow in His footsteps, in His love. It may be foregoing what one wants to do for oneself for what one should do for another. It may mean smiling and asking “How may I help you?” when the desire is to occupy a favorite recliner and binge Star Trek, where most folks get along with each other. It may mean acknowledging to myself that the person who needs what I do has no regard for me as a human being. Well, He looked beyond my faults and saw my need, going to the cross for me and to the cross for them, too.
How can I say that I love Him, whom I’ve never seen before, and not love the ones whose paths cross mine each and every day?
