I'm about 80 pages into the book Preemptive Love by Jeremy Courtney.
He's been living and working in Iraq for about seven years with his wife and children and is the director of Preemptive Love Coalition.
The focus is on helping kids in Iraq get surgery that is necessary for their survival. He started out by sending the kids to another country to get the treatment because at the time there were no hospitals in Iraq that were equipped. Years later, Preemptive Love Coalition has helped to set up hospitals in cities across this war ravaged country.
The whole idea behind preemptive love is to act first, with love, and ask questions later.
As Courtney said in a TED Talk, "If we live skeptically and only by the principles of risk-management, I fear we'll miss the opportunity to remake the world around us."
The whole idea of preemptive love sounds at once brave, naive, powerful and disarming. But to hear Courtney describe his own experience with it, preemptive love is also miraculously able to bridge cultures in a way no other force has.
I'd like to offer a few other quotes from Courtney that are included in his TED Talk:
"Violence unmakes the world. But preemptive love unmakes the violence and allows us to remake the world."
What did God's son have to same about the same subject? Didn't God's son say something about loving our enemies? Doing good to those who would seek to harm us? (Matt. 6.43-44).
"Preemptive love unmakes violence. Preemptive love unmakes injustice. And preemptive love can kick out fear."
What Bible verses come to mind regarding helping the poor? (1 Sam. 2.8, Job 5.16, Ps. 22.26, Ps. 35.10, Ps. 68.10, Pr. 17.5). What did God's son say about peacemakers? (Matt. 5.9). About those who are merciful? (Matt. 5.7),
Towards the end of Courtney's talk, he posed a refreshingly outrageous question and a challenge: "What's your dream? What act of preemptive love can you do this week? An act of extending trust to another, who perhaps hasn't earned it yet? An act of suspending fear in your life? Would that help accomplish your dream?"
It got me to wondering, what would the world look like if we all began to practice preemptive love? If we asked God, each day, to show us just one person or situation where we could put preemptive love into practice?
photo credit: www.jeremycourtney.com
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