Recently during a meeting that I had with a student, I was blown away at the realities that He had to work through. He had failed a semester in college, which was not his norm. As I looked over his classes, they were far less complicated than the ones he had previously excelled in at the university. When his name got called out for a dismissal from the institution, I had an immediate physical reaction. Heart pounding and breath abated, I tried to remain as calm as possible. This was one of my students, I wouldn’t, I couldn’t give up on him. I reached out to the chair of his program, we needed to talk, we needed to devise a plan to save him.

I can’t imagine what God went through when He saw, not just His students, as He is the Divine Teacher, but His beloved creation making choices that would ruin their lives, for eternity. Adam and Even made a choice that plunged themselves and all their future posterity into hell. It was their initial decision, that had the rippling effect that my student, who has just walked away from his teenage years, to be experiencing separation, anxiety and death in a matter of months, back to back.

God did not design for us to go through life in the way that we have been forced to live. And although it was not His fault, He took the consequences of eternal death upon Himself: No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord.” John 10:18 BSB. Jesus was not forced to carry the load of sin, but He did so because He would not sit idly by while His loved ones perished.

Jesus gave His life because He loves us: There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 NLT. And He calls us to love just as abandonly as He does: A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.” John 13:34 BSB.

Does that mean that we should be dying for others? Yes. The idea is dying to self daily as Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 15:31, and in so rejoice in the celebratory love and affection for your fellow human being. Meaning, if you see someone who is on the wrong path, you don’t just shrug shoulders, you find out how you can step in and help. That’s what Christ did for us, and it’s what motivates me to love others, by stepping in their situation.

Had I not said anything, my student would have been dismissed and marked as a poor learner. But the love that I have for him and every single one that comes into my attention, will not allow me to simply stand by and let them fail. Now, I can help chart out the waters, but I can’t make the journey him. Unlike Christ who did make the journey for us. Now all we have to do is trust Him and move forward in His faith, following His path.

And the faith that He asks us to have is the faith in someone else, the faith in Him, the faith to love, even when it hurts. Give love while we still can, because that is the ENTIRE reason why you and I were created to begin with.