If you are a little sick of overly sentimental greeting card quotes in Valentine Cards, read this:
The love for equals is a human thing - of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles.
The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing - the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.
The love for the more fortunate is rare thing - to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints.
And then there is the love of the enemy - love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world.
Source: The Magnificent Defeat, by Frederick Buechner
Another Favorite: "To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it up carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable... The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers... of love is hell." - C.S. Lewis
IF you want to see a great 10 minute sermon video on the Old Testament view of love, check out the Nooma Video "Flame" by Rob Bell. The video is on DVD for $13 at Family Christian Bookstore or $10 online. You can see a 30 sec. clip at http://www. nooma.com
Oh, and one more thing: Here is a great Valentine's Day commercial from Publix:www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC5EJ020qhU
So go out and love somebody (Maybe even your enemy!) the Biblical way! Act in their best interest PERIOD! Display an "God-enlightened, God-empowered enconquerable good will!" What does that look light? Hmmm...maybe you know you are loving this way when you are kind, patient, not easily angered, not keeping a record of wrongs, not envying, not boasting, not being rude, and not giving up! (Check out 1 Cor. 13 - it makes a great compass to see when you are loving in God's direction!)
The love for equals is a human thing - of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles.
The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing - the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.
The love for the more fortunate is rare thing - to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints.
And then there is the love of the enemy - love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world.
Source: The Magnificent Defeat, by Frederick Buechner
Another Favorite: "To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it up carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable... The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers... of love is hell." - C.S. Lewis
IF you want to see a great 10 minute sermon video on the Old Testament view of love, check out the Nooma Video "Flame" by Rob Bell. The video is on DVD for $13 at Family Christian Bookstore or $10 online. You can see a 30 sec. clip at http://www. nooma.com
Oh, and one more thing: Here is a great Valentine's Day commercial from Publix:www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC5EJ020qhU
So go out and love somebody (Maybe even your enemy!) the Biblical way! Act in their best interest PERIOD! Display an "God-enlightened, God-empowered enconquerable good will!" What does that look light? Hmmm...maybe you know you are loving this way when you are kind, patient, not easily angered, not keeping a record of wrongs, not envying, not boasting, not being rude, and not giving up! (Check out 1 Cor. 13 - it makes a great compass to see when you are loving in God's direction!)
2 comments:
Great quote by Lewis. The Publix commercial makes me cry!
You know...here in Lakeland, corporate home to Publix, we are awfully proud of what they do and who they are...sniff...they are GREAT corporate citizens of our fair city...and to have YOU include their commercial in your blog-site...well, sniff...it's about more than I can stand.
Sniff.
Thank you.
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