A Test for Legalism – Do We Care?

Care is love is grace – true love. The legal approach, however, enshrines itself in ‘proper’ purpose – one so often, and ironically, lost on the real purpose.

Just as good to get the point across is the choral lyric from the Michael Jackson hit, They Don’t Care About Us, 1996:

“All I wanna say is that,

They don’t really care about us.”

“Duty” of Care – How We Get Lost In It

Like a web of intrigue we’re swamped so very easily in a care that doesn’t care. Fear for prosecution and litigation has us folding our arms nonchalant of the real need. We get lost in red tape.

It is a love without purpose, appointment or direction and it not only falls on confused and ambivalent ears, it turns those receiving these messages off—and turning them back ‘on’ again is a vast effort of the highest integrity combined with an approach that’s unconditional over the long term.

We see here the rebuilding of trust is hard.

When people have been un-loved they will not quickly come back to the abuser of that love in the first place... they’ll shy away from the most ardent of overtures of re-care.

They will look us in the eye very intently before venturing again to trust—and who could blame them?

What’s At the Root of a Lack of Care?

The root of the lack of care is the lie—to reject the truth of love for a lie that our beneficence is more important.

Those who pretend to care and frankly do not are reprehensible. There is evil intent about this sort of pretence. Their legalism is killing hope around this earth that relies so inherently upon love.

The real root at the heart of a lack of care is selfishness, self-protectedness and self-absorbment. We could call this, “me-ness.”

Responses to a Lack of Care

Anger! Sharp and unadulterated, viscerally-discharged anger...

People know that it’s the Divinely-appointed role of leaders, teachers, parents, bosses, politicians etc to care—to care as Jesus, our Divine model for caring, cared.

This is the final test of us.

Where we try to promote a vision of ourselves as ‘carers’ and we fail at this because we miss the point—self-selecting for ourselves—we have that moment become ‘legal,’ to an inch.

This is the perennial test for the leader—any leader—anyone who sees themselves as a leader. For, we are all leaders... in the home, possibly at the workplace, and in our communities. Anywhere we are to provide care we’re a leader. Is there anywhere on this earth we can go where we don’t have the responsibility to care?

One thing to always be acutely aware of: care. It is a verb—a doing word.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.