Monday was St. Valentine’s Day! This is the one day in the year that most men express their love to their wives and sweethearts with roses and chocolate. With all the current anger and division in our world it is a much needed celebration.
Sadly, it often feels like a last-minute sham too much of the time. Dinner reservations need to be made way in advance for this day, but, other than that, it can be pretty much a last-minute-thought sort of thing. Some women get roses and chocolate that feel like after-thoughts. Sad.
But the real sadness are the people who have no one who loves them. The homeless, the separated, the widowed, those whose relationships are broken, over, the divorced. For this set of individuals, this day is the saddest of all.
Worse still, there are those of us who spend our lives alone. Totally alone. Either we’ve been burned so many times that we no longer even want to try or we’ve just never learned how to be loved. Whatever the cause, the result is the same. Self shielding isolation.
So when someone does express genuine love, genuine affection for us, we rebuff it, ignore it, or assume they want something in exchange. NO ONE could simply love me without wanting something in return?!?
How dare they?
This is one of the root causes why people don’t love freely anymore. It is also, in our postChristian mindset, that people cannot believe the Gospel is offered freely to them in love. They don’t trust that. Or us.
So how do we offer something to people who don’t think they need it, don’t trust it, and don’t know what do do with it?
The answer lies in the reality that the Christian message must be embedded with in us. Our lives, the way we live, is the Gospel. Why are we the way we are? What makes us seem unusual, different, loving? It is the transformative work of Christ the Lord within us.
We should be oozing the life and love of Jesus out of our pores. And for that to happen it first needs to be washing us within, cleansing us of our own crud, and setting our spirits free!
There. Feel better yet? It’s just one of God’s little surprises that takes place once He enters us and makes us new creations. Like I said— different.
Happy Valentines Day (late).
Remember. You’re not alone. It just feels that way sometimes.
Gary
Dr. Gary Davis, President
NEXT— Seeking the Power to Overcome Myself
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