Week 42 - Regular Programming

Once a year, my blog becomes a travel blog, which I will call special programming. This post is part of my regular programming for 2011. Once a week, I do a day of devotion and then blog about it. This entry is one of those. So, if you are only here to read about my travels, feel free to skip on to the next entry. Or, read on (smile).

I normally fast on Monday, but since I would be in the air and a little confused on timing, I decided to fast on Sunday. The subject on my mind was love because I went to a wedding on Saturday. During the ceremony, there was a part where the bride and groom said words they had written for each other.

The groom said something about the bride along the lines that she had:

Loved the unlovable

Gave hope to the hopeless

It touched something in me, and it made me think about what exactly is this thing called love. I am so convinced that love can heal people. There is a song that says, Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me.” I like this song because I know the words to be true.

The funny about this word love is that it’s a word I hear often. I often wonder if people realize what they are committing to when they say it? If you tell me you love me, it should mean something and it should result in something. Should there not be evidence in the declaration? When I don’t know everything about love, I don’t think love is easy come and easy go yet it seems so transient nowadays.

I certainly don’t have all the answers. I know how I think it should be, but I have to wonder how much of my belief in what love is has been clouded with romantic notions. I don’t think love is something that can be easily turned on and off, yet I wonder about how seemingly easy it is to transfer emotions. I think love should be unconditionally, which gives room for forgiveness. I don’t think love should take advantage of that or find excuses for hurtful behavior.

People are more interested in having someone serve them without any desire to serve the other person. People want to have all their needs met without every considering the impact their needs have on the other person. I can go and on, but I decided to find a scripture that talks about love and meditate on that. I do think that a big part of the problem is that people seem more interested in taking than giving.

I used 1 Corinthians 13:4-8m “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth.”

You know weddings have away of doing something. It is an awesome thing to see two people commit themselves to each other. It brings a longing that someone would feel that way about me to commit their life to me. That someone would declare to the world that I am the one they want to commit to, be with, cherish, and love. It’s more than a schoolgirl notion. In the end, love is about being willing to sacrifice something of myself to another person.

Queue the song “Ready for love.”