LOVE AS A WAY OF LIVING

(these postings are added to each Monday and Thursday)

Since it is Christmas consider GIVING the finest gift of all.

Gift wrap the art of love. Frame it with your attitude and actions. Do not just leave it under the tree or confined within the walls of family ties but give it wings so that it can fly from one grand opportunity to the next.

Be not careless with this emotional giant for it is what this Christmas season is all about or else it is not a Christmas season.

Plato called love, “divine madness; but call it what you will the eternal questions continue. How do you find it, feel it, and finally fax it from the center of your heart.?

Paul in the Bible says that love is PATIENT. And that really becomes a challenge when you realize the Greek translation underlines that it means patience toward people rather than toward things. Which isn’t easy... because some people can be actively ornery and continuously cantankerous.

Take Abraham Lincoln and his Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Stanton, appointed by Lincoln to his cabinet, called ole Abe “a low, cunning clown” and “the original gorilla.” And that was on days when he showed restraint. What did Lincoln do in return? He treated Stanton with the utmost courtesy. He knew he was the best man for the job and he would not fire him.

Then, one night in Ford’s theatre, at 10:15 PM, Lincoln was shot. He died the next morning at 7:22, and Stanton, with tears pouring down his cheeks, looked down at the now still form and said, “There lies the greatest ruler of men the world has even seen.”
The strength of patient love had, at the very last, finally prevailed.

Love is KIND. And how can you and I do this? It begins with our eyes. One has to be aware of other people’s needs to even begin to do something about it. In short, don’t wait for people to be kind...rather show them how.

Love is HUMBLE. Some of you may have heard of a man by the name of William Carey. He was a great man of God who as a missionary translated the Bible into no fewer than 34 Indian dialects. When he was young he had been a shoe cobbler, and one evening at a dinner party a man who disliked Carey sneered, “I believe, Mr. Carey, you once worked as a shoemaker.”

“No,” replied Carey, “I was only a cobbler. I only mended shoes. I did not make them.” Carey was known throughout the Christian world as a great linguist. But Carey had no designs on becoming an egotistical fool. He was quite content with being referred to as a cobbler OR a linguist, or both. He had no delusions of grandeur.

Love has GOOD MANNERS. I love the Phillips scripture translation which reads, “Love doesn’t allow itself to be rude, curt and ill-mannered.”

Love? If I love you and you love me as much as we should love each other, it isn’t that we will never have to say, “I’m sorry.” It is rather that each of us will accept the two word apology with a three word reply, “I forgive you,” said either by word or deed or both.

Love? It is a roof over our head that never leaks no matter how hard the rains of sorrow fall.

Are you readying your package of love for Christmas morn in particular, bringing to that exciting time… which can sometimes be a little hectic as well as happy… a special patience, a special kindness, special good manners and special humility. I hope so…for yes…it is the finest gift you will ever give.