What's love but a second-hand emotion?
What's love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?
Which demonstrates a greater expression of love: giving a high school student a million dollars to spend as she wishes, or arranging for her to undergo ten weeks of behaviour change intervention with a Christian counselor? This inter-
vention would cover topics like discipline, respect, communication, fear, love, patience, anger, etc? Similarly, would you be showing greater love to your aging parents by placing them in a very expensive nursing home, but seldom visiting,
only leaving all your contact information with the institution’s staff?
Do not be too quick to dismiss these illustrations. They do speak of real situations and are a commentary on our society's crisis of love. Where love is not prioritized and not proclaimed and practiced, it creates a crisis in relationships
and limits one's ability to manage other crises.
About four decades ago when the song by Tina Turner was released, What’s Love Got to Do With It? She made the point that love is a second-hand emotion; and who needs a heart when a heart can be broken? That was her reality and still the reality of millions, that love is a second-hand emotion. However, the love we are talking about here is the love of Christ, which does not leave the individual heartbroken but mends a broken heart in a world of crisis.
Love in Crisis
Even when love is tough, it must be evident in a world marred by crises, such as:
War
Economic challenges
Unregulated technological explorations
Communication difficulties
Identity gender issues
Political engagements
Religious conflicts and uncertainty
Climate changes
We dare not face these crises without love, and it is not the one Turner sang about. It's more than a second-hand emotion.
The Kingston Keswick planners recently used as their theme, “Truth in the midst of turmoil”, for their week-long annual believers' meetings. There was great preaching reaffirming the need to maintain truth in the midst of turmoil/
crisis. Lausanne is running a series of presentations under the theme, “Standing Firm - the Church in Times of Crisis”. Again, keeping the truth in the centre is both timely and laudable. But for truth to make sense and have
the impact desired on the lives of people, it must have a voice and a vehicle. I want to suggest love as both the voice and vehicle of truth, in and to, a troubled world.
God’s Love – Vehicle and Voice of Truth
That is how God proclaimed and practiced His love among humanity. He came Himself in Jesus Christ, who was both the voice and the vehicle of love. Consider the people Jesus met in His ministry on earth who were in crisis, He gave them a voice. The disciples learned love up close, a ringside view, and it was said of them, that they turned the world upside down, or right side up if you please.
Today, how is God’s love evident in the world? How is love, the vehicle and voice of truth displayed in the immigration policies of the so-called great democracy of the world? Hitler crushed the Jews to create a superior race. Do the immigration policies of the US look like that today? Truth/fact needs the voice and vehicle of love to make it work. Who is being sacrificed for what in our country through Labour Laws in some industries? Who is being sacrificed when there is a massive fish kill in the Rio Cobre to protect who? Who is being sacrificed in this country and others in the region, when remittances on which we depend, begin to dry up because of US policies?
Love is not just a second-hand emotion, it is because God so loved, that He gave.
As you reflect on your journey, how have you experienced the love of God, and how is this evident in your life? How is it being prioritized and practiced in your life? What are you giving because of God’s love for you?
Dear friend, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (1 John 4:7-8, NIV).
Your Pastor