JIM DEEDS

WITH EYES WIDE OPEN

JIM DEEDS A YEAR OF INDISCRIMINATE LOVING

IN 2022, LOVE AS JESUS WOULD HAVE YOU LOVE – INDISCRIMINATELY

Before I begin, I know that this title sounds like I'm inviting you back to 1967 and the year of love with flowers in our hair. I am not, although if you want to wear flowers in your hair, I say go for it! No, I am inviting you (and myself) to something altogether more meaningful and important.

To do this, let me tell you a story from my travels around the streets of West Belfast, where I live. And as is invariably the case, I was walking with my dogs; well, two of them. It was a few months ago, and I was with my big St Bernese, Cody, and my even bigger Great Dane, Mac. It was morning, and the world around us was waking up. The sun was shining brightly and the air was crisp and cold. School children were beginning to emerge from their homes, sleepy-eyed and either dreading or looking forward to another day in the classroom.

As we walked, we came across a mummy and daddy pushing their son out of their house in a wheelchair and then moving towards a van, converted to accept a wheelchair ramp. They were across the street from us, and the dogs were curious about the wheelchair and the ramp sitting out from the van. Mac stopped in his tracks to take a closer look. Now, Mac weighs over 13 stone, so when he stops, I stop!

The parents of the young man in the wheelchair noticed us, and I called over to tell them my dogs were very curious and had never seen a wheelchair going into a van. They smiled and told their son, "Look at those lovely big dogs." Seeing that they were dog-friendly people, I offered to bring the dogs over to their son if he would like it. They responded enthusiastically that he would.

It seemed that Mac and Cody were keen to meet them, too, because they pulled me speedily across the road and moved excitedly up to the family. Once we got there, the young man's face lit up, and he became just as excited as Mac and Cody. He couldn't speak as such but could communicate with sounds. The sounds he made expressed his happiness just fine. His arms were flailing all over the place as he tried to reach the dogs.

Not put off by the flailing arms, Mac and Cody moved right in towards the young man. Mac put his face up to his, almost nose to nose, and had a good look at him.

The young man's arms were now able to reach Mac, and he got a good pet. Cody then nudged Mac out of the way and put his head on the young man's shoulder, and nuzzled into him, to the young man's delight. His parents were amazed at how affectionate the dogs were. Knowing my two dogs, I wasn't surprised, but it reminded me how remarkable dogs are.

I think Cody would have stayed on the young man's shoulder all day, but soon our time was up. The young man had to get to school, and I had to get home to go to work. We parted company amid smiles all round and made our way back home. I hope we brightened the family's day. I know they brightened mine.

We might be inclined to ask if the dogs reacted to the young man in the way they did because they knew he was disabled or 'different' in some way. Did they see his vulnerabilities and seek to care for him? Maybe. Who knows for sure?

However, I think they reacted the way they did because they knew he was not different but that he was the same – the same as his parents, the same as me, and no different from any other person. He was just another person, wonderful in all his glorious excitement, and they love

all people without discrimination. What a lesson they teach us – one of indiscriminate loving of all those we meet.

Now, wouldn't that be a great way to walk the path of life? Imagine the difference we could make to the world around us if we adopted that stance. Imagine what sort of a world we would build if we suspended our judgements about who is worthy of being loved or, as is often the case, who is not. It might just be the world that Jesus would have us build. After all, when he walked the earth, did Jesus not go around showing love to all he met? I am minded here to recall that he often showed love to those who most people in society had decided not to love or, even worse, those they felt God did not love. But how could that be so? We are told that God is love.

And so, as 2022 begins, I invite you to make it a year of indiscriminate loving. This will begin best if you begin with loving yourself. See yourself this year as God sees you – the apple of God's eye, loved and forgiven and cherished. From that place of God-inspired self-love, look around you to those you meet daily and ask yourself how you might show them some love in how you think of them, speak to them and act towards them. If you find yourself making a list of who is worthy of love and who is not, catch yourself and stop.

Love as Jesus would have you love – indiscriminately. If we all do this, 2022 will be a year of building up the Kingdom of God. Happy New Year!

Imagine what sort of a world we would build if we suspended our judgements about who is worthy of being loved or, as is often the case, who is not.

Belfast man Jim Deeds is a poet, author, pastoral worker and retreat-giver working across Ireland.