Happy Valentine’s Day!!
According to experts who track such things, the average person will spend $176 on Valentine’s Day. Are you average? According to the same experts (who seem to have a lot of time on their hands), the thing that you are most likely to spend money on for Valentine’s Day is chocolate. If you wish to fulfill your obligation to buy chocolate but don’t have someone to give it to, I’ll be in the office all week.
Full disclosure: despite the chocolate, I’m not Valentine’s Day’s biggest cheerleader. I never have been. Maybe I’m lacking in romance or sentiment. Or maybe I’m cheap and would prefer to spend $176 on something else. Valentine’s Day just isn’t my thing. But that’s not to say I don’t like love. I do. I love, love!! It’s what makes the world go around. When we love and are loved, we deepen our experience of life. A life without love is not something I would even want to contemplate. John Lennon was right, “all we need is love.”
Love also lies at the heart of our faith tradition. What is Christianity if it isn’t about love? I recently read this quote that rang true for me, “Love is not some small-minded ideal that we bypass on the way to weightier theological principles. Love is Ph.D. level Christianity. If love is to triumph, we need to spend the rest of our lives learning to love more passionately, intimately, intentionally and transformationally. There is no higher call”.
So true. The Christian scriptures are also filled with reminders that love is what it’s all about. In the book of Corinthians, we read what are some of the most well-known words on love. You may have heard these words spoken at a wedding or even possibly a funeral. They invite us to think of love not as something static or sentimental but as an active approach to daily life:
“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”
Do you know what is neat about that passage? If you take out the word “love” and replace it with the word “I”, it comes to life in an entirely new way. It transforms itself into a personal credo. Try it:
“I am patient. I am kind. I am not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. I do not insist on my own way. I am not irritable or resentful. I do not rejoice in wrongdoing but I rejoice in truth. I bear all things, I believe all things, I hope all things and I endure things. Love never ends” Hint: Put that on your front door and give it a quick read every morning before you go into the world.
Valentine’s Day may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it comes laden with good intentions. Behind the roses, chocolates, and cards is a reminder that love is truly our highest aspiration and the goal of a life lived fully and with great purpose.
By the way, I’m serious about the chocolate. I’m in the office allllllllllllll week!!
