True Love

Happy Sunday! 

One of my favorite movies is "Sleepless in Seattle". Who knew movies were travel marketing propaganda? LOL! Anyway, this week I'm in Seattle celebrating my 52nd Birthday! Seeing the sites, and taking a good nap are special items on my agenda. If you have never seen the movie, it's a sappy love story. A good man, yes, they do exist...has lost the love of his life. He leaves Chicago to get away from the memories of his wonderful wife. He wants to get far away, and chooses Seattle. His young son sees that he is unhappy and calls a radio talk show on Christmas Eve to tell the host his father needs a new wife! One of the many women listening to the talk show eventually meets him on top of the Empire State Building and they live happily ever after. Well that's at least the ending we create in our minds. One of my favorite quotes from the movie is when Annie's friend Becky says, "You don't want to be in Love. You want to be in Love in a movie." Ain't it the truth! We say we want love and to be loved, but really we want it to be clean, and neat, and orderly. Love can be messy! 

The Word tells us, "Ask God to bless the people who ask for bad things to happen to you. Pray for the people who are mean to you."(Easy-to-Read Version). OUCH! Really, God? You want me to love people that are out to get me, want to harm me, and hate me for no good reason? YES! Love them too! King David wrote, "Even my best friend, the one I always told everything —he ate meals at my house all the time!—has bitten my hand."(Psalm 41:9, Message). We are commanded to love everyone. 1 John 4:7-8 says, "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."(KJV). Another translation of these verses says, "Dear friends, let us practice loving each other, for love comes from God and those who are loving and kind show that they are the children of God, and that they are getting to know him better. BUT if a person ISN'T loving and kind, it shows that he DOESN'T know God—for God is love."(Living Bible).  

Well, perhaps we should examine what this Love is all about. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 are familiar scriptures, you may have even had them read at your wedding, or want them to be read at your wedding in the future. But beware, these scriptures describe true love! They set the bar pretty high, and sadly many of us have missed it! In the Living Bible Translation these scriptures say, "Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong. It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out. If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending him". Personally, I'm working to just get past the first phrase, "very patient". I want results, and I want them now! But love demands that I give people time to mature, and grow. Love requires that I see people as God sees them. Jesus cried, "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God’s news! How often I’ve ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn’t let me."(Matthew 23:37, Message). Jesus even had to be patient with the people he came to save. But aren't we glad he is patient! 2 Peter 3:9 says, "He isn’t really being slow about his promised return, even though it sometimes seems that way. But he is waiting, for the good reason that he is not willing that any should perish, and he is giving more time for sinners to repent."(Living Bible). 

Lots of Love and Prayers, Cynthia