From Empty to Full

I do lots of good stuff. There are a lot of ways I can empty myself for the sake of another. For me, my emptiness stings a little when I pay the grocery bills. I have made an effort to feed all the neighborhood kids (up to 20!) any time they are over.

But there are some things I will likely never do. Bill Connor, a young father in Wisconsin felt the sting of giving of one's self when his daughter died. As an organ donor, her viable organs were transplanted to people who desperately needed them. On father's day, this brave father biked 2600 miles to hear his daughter's heartbeat inside the man who received her heart. It gives me a whole new appreciation for emptying one's self for another.

Click here to see the video of Bill Connor's reaction.

Narrative Lectionary Text: Philippians 2:1-11

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 
who, though he was in the form of God,
   did not regard equality with God
   as something to be exploited, 
but emptied himself,
   taking the form of a slave,
   being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, 
   he humbled himself
   and became obedient to the point of death—
   even death on a cross. 

Therefore God also highly exalted him
   and gave him the name
   that is above every name, 
so that at the name of Jesus
   every knee should bend,
   in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 
and every tongue should confess
   that Jesus Christ is Lord,
   to the glory of God the Father.