By Jessica Brodie

Have you ever been caught completely off-guard by powerfully unselfish love for another person?

By nature, we humans are pretty selfish creatures. I know I was certainly selfish and rather self-centered for many years until I had my kids. I’m certain I didn’t consider myself terribly selfish or self-centered at the time, but looking back, it was crystal clear.

But as soon as I found out I was pregnant, everything changed. I’m not sure if it was an emotional or spiritual urge or a biological instinct or what, but suddenly I didn’t much care what I wanted. I cared for what was best for my child. I ate foods that were ideal for the baby growing within me, and later when I was nursing, I even cut out coffee because my little one seemed sensitive to it. My whole lifestyle shifted.

That’s what happens in my Christian contemporary novel Hidden Seeds, which releases tomorrow as a paperback, audiobook, and e-book. One of the main characters, Laney, spent many years in a human trafficking ring. It was in jail, after they ran some tests on her and she discovered she was pregnant, that suddenly, everything changed. Determined to do right by her child, she testified against the ring leaders and entered witness protection. Later, she changed her name and hair and moved far away, doing her best to give her daughter a safe and wholesome life—a life nothing like the one she herself had led.

She no longer lived for self but for someone else. For something bigger.

It’s not only mothers who experience this, of course, though most of us would be hard-pressed to live unselfishly and sacrificially for someone besides our offspring, biological or not.

That’s the very thing Jesus Christ did for us—sacrifice. Unselfish living. Extravagant mercy and generosity. And as Christians, it’s the very thing we’re supposed to model.

Yet do we?

Our savior died on the cross for us. He endured ridicule and suffering for us. He lived in poverty, preaching and teaching for three long years, so all could hear his good news. The night before he was betrayed, as he and his disciples ate their meal at the Last Supper, Jesus stripped off his outer clothing, knelt, and personally handwashed every single one of his friends’ feet. Their feet!

“Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you,” he told his disciples in John 13:14-15 (NIV).

Later, when he resurrected and walked again among his disciples, he taught them that they needed to spend the rest of their lives doing as he did—suffering, serving and teaching others, and preaching the good news to have every corner of the earth, come what may.

Our society teaches us something far different, doesn’t it? We live in a me-first society and have for millennia, where our personal happiness and that of our loved ones surpass every other concern. We protect ourselves, our families, our communities, and our nation at the expense of others. Sometimes that’s because it’s human instinct, but other times it’s out of fear.

Yet we, the followers of Jesus, are not of this world. As Christ-followers, we cannot reserve our unselfish and sacrificial love only for our offspring or our family or friends. We must love the whole world that way, even at our own expense.

Jesus said that after loving God, our second greatest commandment is to love others as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40).

So let’s take that seriously and give more than lip service to what our savior commanded.

This week, ask God to show you one person outside your inner circle who needs your unselfish love—and then act on it. It may cost you something. That's exactly the point.

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