ThaT fOUr LEttER wORd

Love.

What does that even mean? I know the word "love" has been tossed around going back as far as the sixties where there seemed to be a regular stream of "love movements" for one reason or another. Not sure what was accomplished there but even now, that word is used as either a weapon to manipulate or a catchphrase to make someone feel they've done their moral duties just by uttering it. Immediately the song lyrics to a piece that was huge in my life in the late nineties come to mind:

"Love. A word that comes and goes but few people really know what it means to really love somebody."

My eyes almost instantly well up with tears when I remember where I was the first time I felt the impact of that song. I was standing with my hands and head lifted up, screaming towards the ceiling, crying out in worship, broken and wondering how I was going to get through the mess I was in. I was standing in a building so many called the "church" but I was unable to call home. I loved the people and invested so much of my life into them and their development and into our relationship and it amounted to nothing. When God changed me, they changed too. They discarded me like an old piece of cloth or an outfit that just didn't fit anymore. They forgot everything that I did. They forgot the ways that I served. They forgot the prayers I prayed. They forgot me. Eventually, I ceased to exist. Simply because God changed my trajectory.

There are so many places that this four letter word can be applied. So many spaces and gaps that this four letter word more than adequately fills. 

I can see parallels in my workplace. I believe that I have exhibited the love of God for my many employees and peers. I have listened to their gut-wrenching stories and accounts of their personal lives. I have put my hand in their hands in remote places and prayed or kept a promise to pray for them and their families. I have intervened on their behalf when they were ready to give up on the job and on people in general. When they were in situations where I could have recommended them to be disciplined for infractions or to be terminated, I advocated for them, asking for one last chance to see if I can get them back on the right track. I became a father, a brother, a coach, a mentor, a professor, and even a friend. All of those roles were rooted in that four letter word. But just like the situation in that old church, when my trajectory changed, the attitudes towards me changed too. My present and former employees have changed. My relationship with my contemporaries have changed. Everything has changed. Love reminds us that why we do what we have done and love itself fills the void of requiring the gratitude. I am quickly reminded of why I did all those things and I am very grateful that I did. Honestly, I love my employees. The fact that the love is unrequited is irrelevant.

I love people who don't even love themselves enough to look professional in their vocation but they will look glamorous for a night out on the town. I love people who believe their vacation plans are more important than soul-saving work in their community. I love people who say they worship God but they begrudge Him for perceived slights from years ago. I love people who say they love everyone but they would only help people that look like them. I love people who think I'm not who I say I am. I love people who hate Christians because they have been deceived and tricked by imposters. I love people who honestly don't love me. John 3:16 reminds us that the Almighty gave the world the gift of His only begotten Son whom He knew would be rejected and despised and abused for the purposes of redeeming a world that largely didn't want help. It was that four letter word that propelled Him to continue with His plan regardless of what He knew would come.

To me, in my humble opinion, that is what makes those that say they believe readily available when a ministry is suffering or there is a need in the community. That is what drives you to pay for the groceries of the person in front of you with no expectation of return. That is what promotes you to clean your church without having to institute a work day. That is what makes people change their plans for a pleasure trip when there is a crisis here at home. That is what drives us to cut your neighbor's grass without them asking. That is what makes you help the widows rather than just expecting her "family" will visit and do it at some part. That is what makes friends check on other friends just because they had been praying for them and they were on their minds. That is what wakes you up at 3 am to pray for someone you don't know well but are clearly in trouble. That four letter word is what makes us truly desire change when we know the way we currently are hurts and hinders others. That is what makes someone that benefited from something selfless you did look you in the eyes and although they may be unable to repay you or put into words what your gesture meant to them, they can simply just say "Thank You". That's LOVE.

"Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"

So when He saw them, He said to them, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?" 

And he said to him, "Arise, go your way. Your faith as made you well." (Luke 17:11-19)

Jesus didn't say the four letter word but the mercy he displayed was a direct result of it. The leper was considered "well" just because they had faith and gave thanks. For me, I am convinced you can be a recipient of plenty of love from all kinds of places and still be sick. 

I guess a small point here is that anyone and everyone can say it but it is a greater, far-reaching, more significant work to show it. It last so much longer than the memory of that word being spoken. That could be why Jesus asked that question of the leper in the end of the passage that, of course as usual, I heard quite differently in my head. 

"Were you not a recipient of that merciful work? Didn't you benefit from that love gift? Is it so difficult for you to appreciate what God has done and give Him thanks? You look at yourself in the mirror. You see your situation that used to be bad but now it's not. What hinders you from opening your mouth and giving God the praise for what He has done for you?

Love doesn't require that you give gratitude. Love also doesn't forget the depths from which it was given. 

What time does "love" close every night for you? Or does "love" stay open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?

"Love suffers long and is kind; Love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails....And now abide faith, hope, and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." (I Corinthians 13:4-8, 13)