Three Life Changing Words

            By now we all know about the terrible and horrific events that unfolded on Parliament Hill and at the National War Memorial on October 22^nd.  What you may have missed is the role that Barbara Winters played on that day.

            Winters, a lawyer and a former member of the Canadian Forces Naval reserve, was walking to her office near the Canada Revenue Agency building when she heard the unmistakable sound of gun fire.  She began to run, not towards safety, but toward Cpl. Nathan Cirillo.

            When she arrived, several others were tending to his wounds, so she did the one thing she could do: she held his head and began talking to him saying, “You are a good man.  You are a brave man.  You are loved.”  She told him to remember that he was doing something good by serving his country and standing guard.  “Your family loves you.  Your parents are proud of you.  Your military family loves you.”  She kept repeating these words until Cpl. Cirillo passed away in the arms of those who were try to save him.

            Later, when asked why she said those words to him, Winters replied, “When you are dying, you need to be told how loved you are.”

            That last line hit me hard and made me wonder, “What am I telling people?  What do people most often hear from me?”

            I mean, if I really believe that the people around me are dying spiritually (Ephesians 2:1 tells us that apart from Christ we are “dead in our sins and transgressions”), am I saying the right thing?  Sadly, most of the time my words sound like this; “Try harder”, “Do better”, “Stop doing this” and “Start doing that”.  My sermons, classes and even my personal interactions often point out where we need to change, but what if that is not the starting point? 

            What if Barbara Winters is right?  What if people simply need to hear that they are loved?  What would happen if I talked more about God’s grace and his forgiveness?  What if nothing really changes in people’s lives until they understand that “God loves you”?

            “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17).  

            When we start with that message, dying people (including me) find life.