Estimated reading time: 3 minute(s)
We just finished watching an episode of Quantum Leap tonight. (We can’t get away from Scott Bakula… we’re also watching the second season of Star Trek Enterprise right now…) 🙂 Quantum Leap was about a scientist who found a way to travel through time within his own lifetime. Something went wrong though, and he ended up leaping into someone else’s life. He was able to leap out again by “fixing” something that happened in that person’s life (or someone near them). There are many flaws within this line of thinking, but ignoring those, it’s a pretty cool show.
This particular episode was where Sam (the main character) gets to leap into a person who was on his brother’s navy seals squad in Vietnam. Originally, his brother dies there, so Sam hopes to save him. Through the episode, the dilemma is who should Sam really save. It’s war, there are lots of people he can save. So, several times, Sam makes the choice to save someone else, even though he might not be able to then save his brother. And at the very end, we see his friend and holographic guide, Al, also making an amazingly selfless choice to save someone else instead of himself or someone close to him. The shows are filled with (even based on) the nobility of choosing the good of someone else – even a stranger – over the good of self.
It’s a fascinating look at something that I think is so much the heart of God.
He is selfless. Philippians chapter two talks about why Jesus did what he did. He emptied himself of all that he had claim to, because he loved us more than himself. He was obedient even to death, so that we could live. It was not martyrdom – that is far more self-interested. It was complete selfless love.
We love that. We need that. That is why shows like Quantum Leap are so compelling. To see someone just like us who would actually – though struggling to do so – willingly choose to put the good of others over their own good. Fascinating.
Look around you today. How much do you see this? Do you see other people motion for you to take the closer parking spot? Do people step aside so that you might get in line at the grocery store ahead of them? How many times does someone do something sacrificial for you without expecting any compensation of any sort?
Not very often. Probably never.
It is not like us to be selfless. But that’s why we make our heroes selfless. Sam is great. You see his struggles, and identify with them, but you cheer for him because he does the right thing. Even when it seems like he shouldn’t, for his own sake. We are drawn to such selflessness. It’s who our Father is. It’s how Jesus lived.
Take a look around, and check for examples of selfless love all around you. From the trivial giving up a parking spot to the ultra-heroic soldiers in Iraq. It does happen. And each time, it’s captivating.
While you’re looking around, see if there might be some choice you can make today for the good of someone else instead of yourself. I think you’ll find out that it will be for your good too.
Being like Dad has it’s rewards. You may just understand a bit more what it means to gain your life by losing it. (Mark 8:35)