Why do many faiths uphold the value of selflessness?

No one can escape the innate values God instills

The Rev. David Livingston, associate pastor, First United Methodist Church, 946 Vt.:

God has created this universe that we live in to follow certain rules. Some of these rules are obvious, such as the law of gravity. If you drop a ball, you can be quite certain it will fall to the ground.

Some of the things we call values are just as much “laws of the universe” as gravity is.

The world was created so that gravity works to our advantage. The same things is true about values such as selflessness.

Whether we like it or not, this world works better if we are selfless. We can pretend the “law” doesn’t exist, just like we can drop a ball and hope gravity won’t make it fall, but the reality is simply that selfless living makes our lives fuller and makes the world better.

We hear a lot more complaining about greedy people than selfless people for that very reason: Greed hurts people, selflessness helps people. Fortunately, most faiths have come to this realization.

The United Methodist Church has a clear teaching of God’s “prevenient” grace –“pre” meaning before, and “venient” having to do with knowledge.

Prevenient grace is the grace that God gives us, or the way God acts in our lives, before we even know or acknowledge God exists. Put more bluntly, God is working in our lives even if we don’t want God to, even if we don’t believe God exists.

If God acts in the world even before we know God is acting, then it should not surprise us that many faiths hold common teachings.

Even if (as I believe) God is most fully revealed in the Christian faith, God’s desire to be known is so great that God becomes accessible in many other ways.

Send e-mail to the Rev. David Livingston at david@fumclawrence.org.

People are created to glorify God in service to others

Moussa Elbayoumy, director, Islamic Society of Lawrence, 1917 Naismith Drive:

It’s no wonder that most religions call upon the faithful to help each other and all others.

The Holy Quran (the Muslim revealed book) states, “it is not righteousness that you turn your faces toward East or West (in ritual prayers), but righteousness is to believe in God and the Day of Judgment and the Angels and the Books and the Messengers, to spend of your possessions out of love for Him, to give the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer, to those who ask and to free slaves, to be steadfast in prayer and practice regular charity, to fulfill the contracts which you have made, to endure and to be patient in suffering, adversity and hardship. Such are the people of truth who are pious.” (2:177)

In one sweeping verse, we are told that real righteousness is more than rituals. A true believer is one whose life has been dedicated to the service of God and the service of God’s creatures and creation.

Every part of the universe was created by God to “worship,” which means a lot more than periodically kneeling down in prayer.

Every one of us is like a tree, created by God, with no reason for existence but to glorify God and be of service to his creation by giving freely its shade, blossoms, fragrance and fruits for others to enjoy.

Our time on this earth would be wasted if it were only for our enjoyment. Let’s try to help others by spreading our “shade” to shelter someone, or giving our “fruits” to feed the hungry, or at least extend our “fragrance” to give someone a happy moment when needed.

Send e-mail to Moussa Elbayoumy at director@islamicsocietylawrence.org.