Love

So we're coming up on that holiday.  You know - the one where we romanticize love.  We talk about all the warm and fuzzy feelings that come up when we celebrate Valentine's Day.

But the truth of the matter is - LOVE - true love - has nothing to do with feelings.  I have posted the toast that my father made at my wedding here before.  He talked about the first time I realized that love had nothing to do with feelings.  And he pointed out that the Bible had given a formula for love in I Corinthians 13 (the love chapter).  That chapter has a list of do's and don't's for love. 

DO:

• be patient
• be kind
• rejoice with the truth
• protect
• trust
• hope
• persevere

DON'T:

• envy
• boast
• be proud
• be rude
• be self-seeking
• be easily-angered
• keep a record of wrongs
• delight in evil

And at the end of this list of do's and don't's there is a promise.  The promise is that if you do these do's and don't these don't's ... Love Never Fails.  My dad's toast to me and to Daren was "To the doing of your love ... that it may never fail."

And all of that sounds so well and good and gives you the warm fuzzies doesn't it?  But when the rubber meets the road - can you do it?  Can you do your love?  Can you be patient, kind, or even trust or hope in the face of something or someone that is NOT loving?  Can you stop being rude, or self seeking for the sake of love?  Because at Valentine's day it's easy to say you could, but could you?  In the face of incurable cancer could you continue to be patient, or to hope?  In the face of depression could you be slow to anger, or not keep a record of wrongs?  When the rubber meets the road do you CHOOSE love?  Not the warm fuzzy feel good stuff, but the hard test of your character stuff.  Because not only is love a verb as opposed to a noun ... it is HARD.  Love - true love - life long love - is hard.  And I would argue that unless you have lived that hard love - you haven't truly loved at all.  To get up every day and to choose NOT to be rude - to choose NOT to be proud - to choose NOT to be self seeking - even when it goes against every fiber of your being - even when the person you are striving to show love to is not showing love back to you - do you CHOOSE to show love for the sake of love?  Because love was shown to you when you did not deserve it?

At Valentine's Day my wish for you is that you have had the privilege of living love and having love lived out for you so that you know the true meaning of love that never fails.