ACE #163: When 'We Are the World' Really Meant Something

The summer of my 10th birthday, there was a popular song out called, "We Are the World".  It featured many celebrities of different races, backgrounds, talents, religions, and genders.  All of us would sing this song over and over again on the bus on our way to sports camp.  Everyone knew the words, but it was the message that really grabbed us - a message full of love, hope, joy and faith.  It was America's way of reaching out to Africa, but it was also our way of reaching out to each other as a nation, but really as small communities that make up the nation.  The song was a symbol of "unity".

This particular song made me think about why our society is in the situation it is - high crime rates, unemployment, poverty, racism, and war.  I contend that the state of the world today has nothing to do with politics or even the economy; the problems really stem from people not having the ability or even the willingness to show others sympathy, empathy, and love.  We live in a society full of plain ole mean people who plot evil - King Harrods, Pharoahs, Queen Jezebels and Delilahs, while there are fewer and fewer Good Samaritans.  People refuse to be their brother's or sister's keeper because there is an attitude of selfishness, entitlement, jealousy, and maybe even fear that exists among people in general.  If it happened between Cain and Abel, who were biological brothers, is it not realistic to think that it is happening now?

This is all the more reason for those who claim to be Christians to study the word of God more intentionally, to pray more often, to live as examples of holiness, and to make disciples.  If the body of Christ is not setting the example, then why should others follow?


1 Corinthians 13

 

13 If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

We Are the World:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BNoNFKCBI