Hesed @ 3:00

'Hesed' is a Hebrew word that doesn't translate into English very well. In an attempt to define the word you would come up with, love, mercy, grace, benevelance, kindness, goodness, loyalty, and covenant faithfulness. If you put all that in a mixing bowl and beat it around for a minute you basically end up with, 'looking to others as more important than yourself." There are several times in Scripture when we are commanded to look to others as more important than ourselves, or we are to love our enemies, or we are to love our neighbor as our self. So hesed is not a new idea but maybe it is more of a revolutionary idea which is not being practiced very much today.
First off let me ask the simple question, why would anyone treat another person as more important than them self? Try to go more personal than, God told me to, but truly seek your own answer, why would I give up something so someone else could have it? Why would I alter my life and dreams so that someone else can benefit from my loss? It's interesting to find out, this question is not so easily answered. When was the last time you really gave something up, "that you wanted." It's easy to let your brother have the last spoonful of green beans because green beans are nasty anyways but what about if it came down to not buying the 160Gb video iPod for almost $400 because you felt a friend needed to go on an oversea mission trip more? Or if it comes down to going to play softball with the group or going to see your grandparent in a nursing home, which would you do? And don't be super spiritual and say I did that once. I'm talking about a life style of hesed. Truly why would anyone give up something they wanted so someone else could benefit from my loss?
The only answer I can come up with is 'love.' The Bible says no greater love has anyone than this, than for a man to lay down his life for his friend. The only reason I can think of as to why someone would lay down their physical or metaphorical life for someone else is, love. A prime example of this is Ruth. Ruth express hesed toward Naomi when she flat out gave wedding vows to her and said, "for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me." Ruth left everything she knew and believed, her home, family, friends, dreams, religion, etc. She walked away from all of that with her mother-n-law to seek out a new life, not because she was so lost in Moab without her husband but because she loved Naomi. She was committed to Naomi to the point of giving Naomi her own life.
Wow, I don't know that I really understand that. Would I be willing to walk away from my life to better someone else's life? Maybe if I was willing than more people would be hearing about Jesus. That sounds kind of harsh but is it not true? Jesus laid it out very simply, Love God and love other people. That's what our life should revolve around. An easy way to remember that is to simply remember 3:00 on a standard watch. One hand points up, vertical and the other points over, horizontal. Each day at 3:00, I'm reminded that my life is about a vertical relationship and a horizontal relationship, anything other than that and I'm losing time.
So honestly, I'll be humble enough to admit I struggle to view others as more important than myself but I am trying to be open to God's teaching. Which is interesting because God showed me the other day in Luke 23:44-46 that Jesus' physical death on the cross happened at the ninth hour which, you guessed it, is 3:00. Jesus was the ultimate expression of hesed when He gave His life up so that I could have Life and that was done at 3:00. Does this mean I run around looking for people to give my life away to? No, but I am looking for opportunities to give to others because the Bible says, we love because He first loved us.