I did a little digging and the history of Valentine's day is not exactly a straight line. For the purpose of this post we will focus on the Christian origins of this holiday. This day that we have come to represent love goes back to around the third century. There was a gentleman by the name of Valentine that had rebelled against a government order making it illegal for young people to get married by marrying them anyway. Eventually he was killed off by the king, given sainthood by the Catholic Church and deemed a martyr. This would be the beginning of Valentine being seen as the herald for love in it's most selfless form. If there's one thing I know about people who love God is that they want the focus to be on God and not on themselves. That being said, let's focus on God, love and our views of it (this will not be about Valentine! lol).
love
1a(1): strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties maternal love for a child (2): attraction based on sexual desire : affection and tenderness felt by lovers (3): affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests
b: an assurance of affection
There are a few things I have noticed about my experience with the human race in general. 1: we tend to be a cautious, cynical, suspicious and borderline negative race of people. We are always looking for "the catch", looking for the "other shoe to drop" and for something bad to happen. The human condition is epitomized by the saying "hope for the best but prepare for the worse". 2: I have observed that we are also the exact opposite! We are a people who love love stories, we love super heroes, we believe that there exists "the one", we want to trust people and have fulfilling relationships. I think a big reason why are so cynical is because secretly we believe love in it's truest form exists. We want it and hope for it but we prepare ourselves for the let down. We even have a day dedicated to love, Valentine's Day! Valentine's Day is celebrated by 16 countries and around 6 million couples (12 million people) get engaged on this day. People are in love with the concept of love. 150 countries (out of a total of around 195) celebrate love in one way or another but yet we treat love like our unicorn. Love has become this mythical animal that we hear of, hear sightings of, maybe even see glimpses of but can never get close to it. Weird how we always try to achieve it though.
One of the common struggles I have experienced and hear from people are their struggles with feeling alone or unlovable. On Valentine's Day the perception is that in a world of in love people, we are home alone and unloved (sometimes even if we are in relationships). I want to take this time to just say out loud that "THAT"S NOT TRUE". Our common, enemy the devil, is a magician and illusionist. The perception does not equal the reality. The enemy waves the perception of what love should look in one hand while stealing our joy and peace with the other. The truth is our relationships (romantic or plutonic) will never be at their absolute best if we do not redefine what we think about love.
Romans 12:2 tells us to "not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect". If we allow God to change the way we think we will no longer see things the way other do but see the truth of God. When we anchor ourselves to the truth of God then we will begin to live life on a different level. The reality is we are loved and worth loving. Depending on the translation you are using the word "love" appears in the bible 437 times. It is quite apparent that God believes in love. I struggled (and sometimes still do) with the fact that God can love me. I would look at my life (outwardly and introspectively) and not see someone who was loved. Like many people, I saw my failed relationships and rejection as a measure of my lovability. It's this habit that makes it necessary to be comfortable first with who you are before you go looking for a romance. Every relationship you ever have will never stand up to an inaccurate perception in you mind.
Have you ever heard the saying "placing the horse before the carriage. This is a saying that is meant to tell us to do things in the appropriate order. We need to allow God to love us first before we can allow ourselves to love others. Poor self-image will be reflected in how we see other's ability to love us and destroy every relationship we will have. For the longest time I felt that if God can't love me then how can others. In this context, "placing the horse before the carriage" would be to allow God to love us the way He wants (which is perfectly). Once we can allow God to love us, then we can move towards loving people in the form of service. There's a reason why a predominant tone of scripture is to love others but not in a romantic way. Romantic love should not be the driving force in our lives. If we are to "seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Matthew 6:33) then we need to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" in order to know how to "love our neighbor as ourselves.
If we can refocus our motivation, we will live life and God will provide absolutely everything we need at the right moment. If we can be good stewards of what we currently have then He will provide more.
My question to us is:
Can we trust God enough to lean on Him for everything and allow Him to straighten our paths?
Challenge:
Let's surround ourselves with the Holy Spirit and really experience love.
Let's surround ourselves with a caring group of people who love God as well.
Let's not focus so much on being loved but loving others. Find your ministry calling.
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