Valentines Day 2011

As Christians, believers, followers of Christ, we are by the very name we call ourselves to be Christ like. There are too many areas to cover on that so I will cover a piece of just one, love. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." "For God demonstrates His love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." There are more passages. These were the first two to pop into mind.

Christ died for us because He loved us. That was His ultimate act of service, sacrifice, love. Christ served us. God served us by giving us more than what we have. We have taken those gifts and many times unknowingly cast them aside. That is why life is not perfect. In our sin we cast aside His gifts like, love, grace, and His perfect will for us.

Love. Christ served us by giving us everything, by giving us His life. In the same way we should be giving our lives to Him and the ones we love. I don't mean that we should die but we forfeit our lives in love. When you look at that man or woman you are married to you should think to yourself, "what can I do to serve you today?" Love fails because we get caught up in the glitter like Hollywood image of love, because we get caught up in an idea of love, we get caught in lust, because we lose focus on the love for those special others and start focusing on ourselves. If people would just stop worrying about getting mine and start serving those that they love, that means you marry the one that you would serve the rest of your life and who would serve you, divorce would start to disappear, couples would grow old together, children would grow up with fewer problems and be more successful, and this world would hurt a lot less.

True love is not a feeling or something to fall in and out of. It is something that just happens and when it does it has nothing to do with you. Love is not about getting married or having sex or Valentines day or even about feeling good. Love truly hurts a lot of the time. It is sacrifice and service. It is what happens when one realizes that they care so much more about another that their well being and happiness is more important than your own.  I don't think that everyone had had the pleasure of suffering love because some, or many, can't get out of their own way, can't stop focusing on the person in the mirror. True love is about them.  Something to think about.

Happy Valentines Day 2011.

Johnny