Jonah Mowry

I’m one of many who recently came across the video from a young man named Jonah Mowry who spoke out about the sadness in his life. Well, not “spoke” so much as shared his thoughts via queue-cards like Bob Dylan in "Subterranean Homesick Blues" or INXS in "Mediate". Regardless of the format, the message came across loud and clear. And as in most cases, the questions and blaming will probably take precedence over what the very simple bottom line is. Do you know what it is?

Well, let’s cover the unanswerable questions first:

·       Is he Gay?

·       How could he know of suicide or cutting in second grade?

·       Where were his parents?

·       Where were his teachers?

·       Where were the authorities?

·       Where was the church?

·       Why didn’t anyone stop the bullies?

·       Where was God?

Now how about the ONE question that everyone can answer. Where was the unconditional love? The unconditional love that Jesus spoke about in “The Greatest Commandment” in Matthew 22:34-40. That love exists in each and every single one of us. But we have a tendency to fail in offering this love because we ask one of those questions listed above instead of just simply offering love. The love of Jesus. And this love of Jesus has no boundaries. It is not confined to a religion (thank God!). The love of Jesus is intended to be offered, nay, freely given to everyone around us. You can be a Christian and give the love of Jesus. You can be Muslim and offer the love of Jesus. You can be Atheist, Buddhist, Hindi or Hebrew. You can be German, Chinese, African or American Indian to offer the love of Jesus. You can be gay or straight and offer the love of Jesus.

Does offering love require a background check? Does offering love demand credentials? Does offering love insist that you understand the recipient? Does it cost you money to love unconditionally? Maybe it does, as this being the holiday season. I am curious to know how many of our Christmas gift lists were based on deservedness as opposed to need of love. The bigger the present, the grander the love, yes? Our retailers and our stock market are counting on that kind of love.

But in the end, a bigger present does nothing for someone like Jonah Mowry who feels more at ease when he takes a blade to his skin then being around people whose self-loathing becomes abusing the weak like him.

And we fail when we are not there for the likes of Jonah to simply show him the love of Jesus, not the politics of religion. Can you not feel a small part of yourself die when you try to rationalize why you didn’t have time to love a little more? But we still have time, don’t we?

We do, until we are gathered at the funeral of one who’s cries fell on deaf ears and we find ourselves asking that other unanswerable question – WHY?