LOVE AS A WAY OF LIVING

These thoughts are added to each day. Scroll down and read previous One A Days.)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters) (365 stories a year)

It was 1941, and the place was Auschwitz, a holding place for lost souls and starved and hurting bodies. It was hell on earth. And on this particular day hundreds of miserable human beings, ill-clothed and ill-fed, stood outside their cold and crowded barracks shivering in a steady falling snow.

They had been standing there for hours and the Commandant assured them they would continue to stand there until an escapee was captured. Each mealtime, their meager, miserable ration of soup was brought to them, and then slowly poured out to splatter upon their feet.

By the second day many had fallen and lay quite still as death. The long sleep, had now released them from this earthly purgatory. Since the escapee had not been captured the Commandant ordered that ten men be pulled out of the line to be executed. “Long live Poland,” cried out one of the chosen men. Another, weeping as he was shoved forward moaned, “My poor wife. My poor children.”

Then suddenly, a man, not chosen, began to walk forward. A soldier raised his rifle to fire. Miraculously he was told not to as the Commandant spat at the man and asked loudly, “Who is this Polish scum?”

The man, a priest by the name of Father Kolbe, no more than a skeleton himself, was a living symbol of human endurance and dignity. He quietly continued a few more steps and simply said, “I would like permission to die for one of these men.”

With a sneer, the Commandant granted his wish, not realizing what he was setting in motion for afterwards the camp was never the same. The power of love and brotherhood swept through the pettiness, the selfishness of humanity that always arises when men and women get together. All these lesser human traits were shocked into nothingness. They simply died on the spot.

Now a spirit of unity arose. The sick shared food with those who were sicker. The despondent tried to raise the spirits of those on the edge of suicide. A psychological truth arose, “Love does not just make the world go around. It gives a greater reason for living.” And so many lived who otherwise would have died. That is except for Father Kolbe. After eight brutal days of torture, they killed him by injecting gasoline into his veins.

It is unlikely you will have to step out of line and ask permission to die for someone else, but will you step out of line to live for someone else?

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:1

Recent Titles on “WYRICK’S WRITINGS SITE”…
Nov 8… A LEFT OVER GOD
Nov 9… ASPIRE TO PRESPIRE FOR A CAUSE WORTH THE PRESPIRATION
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