Well it is Valentine’s Day, or for my single friends, “Singles
Awareness Day.” I thought it would be a good chance to say a few things about
love. In both secular culture and in the church we throw around this word “love”
like it has ultimate meaning. Yet words that are undefined don’t mean anything
except what the receiver wants them to.
Here is a for example. Pastors “beat the sheep” with phrases
like “Jesus calls us to love the poor.” I absolutely believe this is what our
savior requires of us, except that if we let love go undefined we can scrub it
of meaning so that in loving the poor we don’t actually have to do anything.
Then let us do the work of giving love some sort of
definition. First of love is not infinite except in the hands of our God, I do
not except the premise that love is undefinable because it is too big. Secondly
we can look to Christ on the Cross as our gold standard of love. What was he
doing up there? Well to rip off John Piper, he was suffering on behalf of
others that they may experience full satisfaction in God.
The ultimate expression of Love for God was not warm
fuzzies. This is good, years of having my emotions manipulated by Hollywood and
advertising has left me skeptical of warm fuzzies to the point that I only
really feel them for Heather and Isabel (wife and daughter). I take comfort in
knowing that even in these conditions I can still love. I can still suffer and
work in order that others would enjoy satisfaction in God.
What will I celebrate today? Well first off I will attempt
in my maleness to show my wife some amount of romantic love. Secondly I will
celebrate Jesus love through suffering. I will try and emulate it. Ill pray
that his cause becomes my cause. That my heart turned to stone through sin can
be melted by grace so that I would be able to set aside my kingdom to suffer on
behalf of his.
Happy Valentine’s Day friends, may you always know both romantic
and Agape love.
