LOVE
Posted by Chaplain Campbell. Filed in Life Lessons, Stories |
L-O-V-E — it’s a simple word to spell. But it takes a lot more to do it!
In this month that includes Valentine’s Day, perhaps we should take a fresh look at love. Certainly love includes the romantic side of life, the type of love that is celebrated on February 14th each year. What a neat thing that is!
Love is also defined as caring, the giving of oneself for the benefit of others. And that is the basis for our care giving, our honest giving of self for the well-being of those we serve.
This came home to me in a fresh way this past summer while I was deployed to Iraq. Our medical commander, a flight surgeon in the Air National Guard who in civilian life teaches at a prestigious medical school, was saying farewells to the base leadership.
His time in Iraq roughly coincided with mine and I had watched his actions that not only ensured great medical care for our forces, but also made wonderful connections for medical treatment for Iraqi nationals through a local clinic, and in some cases, included sending Iraqis to the States for needed medical care. I know that he and his wife had personally sacrificed to make this happen over a number of years.
One of the patients he helped was a young woman who had been horribly burned over much of her body. Following local treatment she was being sent to the States along with her grandmother for needed surgery. I had a few minutes to speak with her through an interpreter as she lay on her hospital bed awaiting her flight. When I asked how they thought things would turn out, the grandmother said it would be wonderful, because it was the USA! The outpouring of loving care from this Air Force doctor made a difference in this family’s life.
As this high ranking, soon-to-retire military doctor said his farewells to other commanders he said that the motivation for what we were doing there was - love. There was a silence, a pregnant pause, after he uttered those words. Truly, I believe he captured it. Love must motivate our actions, whatever they may be, if we truly want to help others.
Let’s make sure we care for others not merely out of sentiment but from a love motivation.
