Read
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
1 John 3:18
Reflect
There are so many stories about Abraham Lincoln that it’s hard to tell what’s truth and what’s fiction. But one story that seems to bear truth is one retold by Joanna Lane, the wife of former Senator Henry Lane of Kansas.
Senator Lane was the former military commander and a good friend of General Lew Wallace. (You may recognize that name. Later in life, he became a novelist and was most noted for a little book called Ben-Hur. But I digress) The two were close enough that Wallace had even named his only son Henry Lane Wallace. During the Civil War, Wallace was at one point the youngest major general in the Union Army, and he commanded the 3rd Division of the Army of the Tennessee under Ulysses S. Grant. Wallace and his brigades were involved in the Battle of Shiloh, which percentage-wise was the deadliest conflict of the war. More than 32 percent of soldiers involved on both sides were either killed or wounded – including a general named Wallace.
Hearing the news, Senator Lane rushed to find out more from Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. While there, he encountered President Lincoln, who was also there to learn about the general’s fate. The truth, they learned is that it was a different General Wallace – W.H.L. Wallace of Illinois – who had been killed in the battle. Relieved, Senator Wallace stated, “I’m so thankful it wasn’t our Wallace.”
“Yes,” the president replied, “but it was somebody’s Wallace.”
So often, we can unintentionally reveal our selfishness when we lose sight of how other people are affected by the trials of this life. We rejoice when we are spared from destruction by the same storm that brings devastation to someone else. It’s not wrong to be grateful for our survival, but we must have enough love to be able to show compassion for others who aren’t as fortunate. The love we have in Christ must be stronger than the love of the world. If it’s not, of what value is our Christian faith?
The Bible commands us to love so many times and in so many ways that it’s impossible to escape the importance of expressing love to others. In Luke 13:34, Jesus told his disciples to love each other as He had loved them. In today’s scripture (1 John 3), we are told that true love is shown in laying our lives down for others. In Luke 6:35, Jesus admonished his followers to not just love their friends, but most importantly those who opposed them. And, of course, there’s the famous passage of 1 Corinthians 13, which tells us that pure love is completely unselfish.
The bottom line, clearly, is that we’re called to love, and to love broadly. Our love should extend beyond the four walls of the world with which we’re comfortable and extend to those who we don’t know and who might even be unfriendly to us. In every situation, our love should compel us to have compassion on those who need it most. Somebody’s “Wallace” needs love today. Will you give it?
Reflection copyright © 2022 Doug DeBolt and Charles Fulton
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
