Thursday, February 12, 2004
VALENTINE’S DAY --
LOVE DAY – FEBRUARY 14th
Saturday is considered a day of romance throughout at least the United States. I don’t know about other countries. Thousands of cards are sent to Loveland, Colorado, at this time each year to be postmarked and sent on to someone.
Also, there is a small town in my home state, Valentine, Nebraska, where the post office receives something like 10,000 or more letters each February to be postmarked and sent on.
So, what is love? How do you explain it? There are at least 3 Greek words to express shades of meaning of the one English word “LOVE”. Preachers preach about these words all the time – agape, phileo and eros.
But I’ve been thinking about this subject for awhile. Imagine this scene: You are standing on the sidewalk that parallels a very busy street. A child you know and love, or at least like a lot, is playing along the curb of that street. A car, traveling at a high rate of speed, reels out of control as it comes to the place where the child is playing. At about that same moment, the child steps off the curb and into the path of the on-coming car!
WHAT DO YOU DO?
If you are near enough, you probably rush out, push or pull the child to safety. Maybe you escape being hit by the car. But maybe you don’t escape. Maybe you are killed, or at least injured severely. Either way, if what you do is known, you’d likely become kind of a hero with your picture in the newspapers, on t. v., etc. It isn’t every day that someone would risk or even lose their life for another.
Now, imagine somewhat the same scene: child playing near the curb of a busy street; you are standing on the sidewalk; cars are rushing by. Again, a car comes speeding crazily down the street, toward the spot where the child is playing. As the car approaches, the child steps off the curb and into the path of the on-coming, speeding car.
Same scene—with this difference: This time, the child is one you can’t stand! Maybe he or she trampled your flower bed, threw rocks at your new car, purposely broke a window in your house. Whatever the case, you can’t stand this kid – never did like him, or his parents either, for that matter.
NOW – WHAT DO YOU DO ABOUT THE ON-COMING CAR?
Would you try to save this child from the same dangerous situation as readily as you would the child in the first illustration? Would your motivation be as strong as in the first situation?
None of us knows exactly what we would do unless or until we are in that circumstance. We only know what we would like to do, or what we hope we would do. Even then, we might not react the same way twice. But this has given me something to ponder. And all this has led me to wonder which of the above two actions would be the greater act of Christian (godly) love? Romans 5:7-8 indicates that the greater act of true godly love would be to save the child in the second illustration just as readily with the same motivation that we would rescue the child in the first illustration. But I wonder how many of us would or could. It seems to me that almost never would anyone willingly lay down his life for someone whom he didn’t like, or even hated. It would almost be easier to lay down your life for someone you didn’t know than for someone on your “hate-list”.
So all this “pondering” has led me to a couple or conclusions or observations. I don’t have time to fully develop these thoughts here but let me mention them.
First, Love is INVOLVEMENT.
Any reaching out in love to be involved in someone’s life contains the element of risk. If a doctor is driving down the highway and stops to help someone, he is liable to be sued for malpractice or something. Yet if he doesn’t stop he is possibly breaking the “Good Samaritan” law. Or he might even be hit by another car while helping the first motorist.
If someone is endangering himself or herself either physically, emotionally or spiritually and we seek to intervene, we run the risk of rejection, ridicule, anger or whatever. Yet godly love is involvement, even though it means risk. And if we are to love as God loves, we are to “interfere” in people’s lives.
Well, this is too long already. So I’ll stop now. But I think I’ll write more about this subject probably tomorrow.
Jim
posted by jim 7:00 PM 0 comments
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