A Vast and Steamy Love Story

Life Notes—February 11, 2010 

“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.”   1 Corinthians 13:4-8a 

With Valentine’s Day approaching it seems appropriate to confess I consider myself quite a lover.  I love my wife and children.  I love our friends and extended family.  I love my church, my co-workers and colleagues.  I love my Savior.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am not always patient or kind.  I am often envious and boastful and arrogant and rude.  Insist on my own way?  Guilty.  I am a lover, but I’m also human.  The good news is the two are not mutually exclusive. 

The passage above is so familiar it almost seems a cliché, and that is unfortunate.  The words are beautiful and the message deceptively deep.  According to these words love is multi-worldly.  There is simply no other way to understand it.  Unlike most treasures of the earth, love never ends.  Paul points beyond our earthly experience and limited understanding of love to something eternal, something pure, something holy.  Like most things on earth, love may become soiled; but there is an eternal essence to love that cannot be perverted by our earthly failings. 

So, what of love gone bad?  What of a beloved companion who dies too soon?  What of love that is never reciprocated?  I suspect the loves we know on earth are partial chapters in a vast and steamy love story that is far from complete.  If love never ends, as Paul writes, love outlives our earthly experience and continues beyond.  Who knows what love looks like on the other side of the grave?  Without frail bodies, without the temptations of the flesh, without finances or distance or busy schedules…imagine the possibilities! 

Do the selfish desires which often override my loving intentions for others make me less of a lover?  I hope not.  My loving intentions for those I love are good and pure, even if my follow through is sometimes lacking.  As the Wizard of Oz told the Tin Man, “…a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.”  By that standard I am quite a blessed lover, indeed!  I pray this Valentine’s Day finds you loved, too, and somewhere in the middle of a vast and steamy love story! 

This Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday.  Tom’s sermon title is “Mystery, Silence and Glory” and is based on the scripture found in Luke 9:28-36.  New members will be joining at all services.  Life service is at 10:45 in Brady Hall.  Traditional worship in the sanctuary is at 8:30 and 11:00.  Contemporary worship at the west campus is at 9:30. 

Come home to worship this Sunday!  Oh, and bring your love…

Greg Hildenbrand, Life Music Coordinator