Why the Dead Sea is dead

It was a first for me. A young woman in high heels gave a man on the streets of Kampala a half-full bottle of mineral water, and after gulping it down, the man let out a loud "ah" in a way that suggested he was grateful for the water more than he would have been for money.

The experience got the scales falling from my eyes. I realised for the first time that I can always give what I have. There is a tendency in church as everywhere of thinking in monetary terms when it's time to give. People are shunning churches or wedding meetings, and are not checking on the prisoner because they think there's money involved. Yet a mango from your garden, a bottle of mineral water or even your mere presence could do just as fine.

The Dead Sea is sometimes called "Stinking Sea" or "the Devil's Sea"

Consider Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her Sisters of Charity who carried with them only hearts aflame with love. By representing "love in action" as Malcolm Muggeridge writes in Something Beautiful for God (1972), they made all the difference. Working with "the poorest of the poor", Mother Teresa discovered that "being unwanted is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience," and that a loving heart was the only cure.

To emphasise her point, humanity needs more love than money. And how do you love those that need love without getting in close contact with them? Think of the street kids, the despised "little people," the abused prostitutes or the rejected poor. They are human too; they too have a right to respect, love and understanding. They are the neighbours that Jesus asks us to love in proportion to how much we love ourselves.

Now, on why the Dead Sea is dead, a friend told me it's because it receives but does not give back. It receives water mainly from the Jordan River but since it has no outlet, what it gets stays till it's evaporated by the hot desert climate, which unfortunately means all the fish that come in soon dies. Simply put, the Dead Sea is the 'meanest' most 'selfish sea.

Thus we can do better by giving of our time and hearts; sacrificing a little for the good of others. Singer Nneka says beautifully that "love is the heart-beat of life," without which we shall certainly end up dead like the Dead Sea.