Dear New Life Friends,
The day after Valentine’s…
Some of us are wallowing in the love residue dripping into today from yesterday. Others of us are thrilled the mush and gush are over. Regardless of what you think of the holiday, we can at least be grateful that once a year it causes us to think about love.
You’ve heard it before…
Thank goodness love isn’t relegated to a holiday that only comes once a year. Love is one of the basic needs of life in addition to air, food, water, clothing and safety. To say we don’t need love is only to try and fool ourselves (because we sure aren’t fooling anyone else!). Love is critical to our survival as human beings.
We can make too little of love. Love is more than what we do on FaceBook (although I haven’t seen a lot of that lately - #justsayin’, #yeahIwentthere)
We can make too much of love. Love isn’t a feeling, it’s an act of the will that is often inconvenient, expensive and may not always be appreciated (just ask God if all the love he has showered on us has been reciprocated).
Love comes in so many ordinary ways on ordinary days…
- the Preschool Teacher getting down on the child’s level to really listen to what they have to say
- the coworker willing to pull a little extra weight when one of the team members is down
- the mother packing a napkin note in the lunchbox
- the father building a fort for the kids
- the friend baking dinner to take to someone who is sick
- the neighbor picking up the garbage that has spread across the yard
- the acquaintance that makes a complement to the person passing by
Just because Valentine’s is over doesn’t mean we’re done with lovin’!
So… Let the love linger and don’t rush too fast past our yearly reminder.
- Do an act of love that isn’t convenient.
- Do an act of love that costs you something.
- Do an act of love knowing it might not be appreciated.
- Offer a word of grace instead of judgment.
- Offer a word of forgiveness instead of condemnation.
- Offer a word of hope instead of criticism.
For me, that’s not only a good idea because we’d all like to be on the receiving end of love. It’s a good idea because we’ve already all been on the receiving end of love - whether we’ve appreciated it or not.
So, here’s to God, who by sending Jesus demonstrated his love for us even before we asked for it and whether or not we would ever appreciate it (Romans 5:8) … May we respond out of that love with love today - the day after.
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor Mike