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January 23, 2006
Love is
patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not
proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily
angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always
hopes, always perseveres.
[1Cor 13:4-7,
NIV]
Each wedding is
a day of hope. Hope stands on vows, solemnly made in front of all
those we love and hold dear. And vows are secured with a promise…to
love, honor and cherish, in good times and bad, in sickness and
health, till death we do part.
Love is at the
center of this most special day. A wedding album holds a history of
promises made in pictures of love and perfection.
Pictures of love
in the world abound. Our husband kisses us goodbye in the morning. A
child climbs into our lap in the early morning hours. We get a
birthday card from an old college friend. And huddled together on the
beach, sharing hot chocolate, we watch the sun go down.
If love fails,
it’s not for lack of knowing love when we see it.
If love fails,
it must be for lack of committing ourselves to making it happen.
Love is
patient. Has there been a moment today when someone has offended us
by taking too long in the grocery line? Love has failed.
Love is kind.
Did we speed up to cut off a car crowding in front of us on the
freeway? Love has failed.
Love is not
rude. Do we enjoy telling our friend how we chewed out the insurance
agent on the phone because he forgot to file our claim? Love has
failed.
Love keeps no
record of wrongs. Yet, how many reasons can we recite for being mad
at Aunt Linda? How many people will we tell? And how long will we
hold to our promise to never speak to her again? Love has failed.
If love fails,
it fails because we fail. In spite of the people who slow us down,
the speeding cars on the freeway, the forgetful insurance agents and
the crazy family members we have to suffer…love fails because we fail
to love.
The greatest
misunderstanding of love in the modern world is our tendency to equate
love with warm and cuddly feelings. Perhaps mass marketing has added
to the problem. We have come to expect love to look like a Hallmark
commercial, complete with soft music and sentimental tears.
But love is more
than a pretty picture. And love is more than a feeling.
Love…”is an
action, an activity… Love is not a feeling,” wrote M. Scott Peck in
The Road Less Traveled. Describing love in detail, Peck taught,
“True love is not a feeling by which we are overwhelmed. It is a
committed, thoughtful decision.”
Published
in 1978, his book sold over six million copies in North America alone
and was translated into over 20 languages. The 25th
Anniversary Edition was released in 2003. First described as a “new
psychology of love, traditional values and spiritual growth,” it broke
with the sentimentality of the 60s. “Love is as love does,” Peck
wrote. “Love, then, is a form of work or a form of courage."
The Road Less
Traveled
certainly tapped into the need of Americans to re-evaluate their
values and relationships. But its message was hardly a “new
psychology of love.”
But I tell
you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you
may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the
evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the
unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?
Are not even the tax collectors doing that? [Mat 5:44-46, NIV]
If loving our
neighbor is easy, then we haven’t stretched far enough. In truth,
love fails because we’re not up to the work of love.
But this is
2006. And if we are dedicated to love, we are dedicated to work. So
here it is. A job. An assignment.
Who in your life
is impossible to love? And if it’s impossible, the good news…the
great news… is that you have the power at hand to change the world, to
make the impossible…possible. You are only one decision away from
love.
This week. One
decision. Just one decision and one act of love to change the world.
Are we up to it?
Love is a
learned phenomenon….if you don’t like where you’re at in terms of
love, you can change it.
--
Leo Buscaglia
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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL
VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
The "NIV" and "New International Version" trademarks
are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by
International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the
permission of International Bible Society.
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January 9, 2006 To
Know Love When We See Love, Part 1
September 12, 2005
Kiss, Kiss, I Love You
See Archives
for more past editorials.
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