Eternal

This weekend the Women's Ministry on campus is having a Valentine's Dinner. Dozens of women will gather to be served food by our brothers in Christ and spend some quality time together. I've been involved with planning this dinner, and spent some time last week making gifts for all the ladies who are attending. On each of the small gifts, I wrote our theme verse, 2 Corinthians 4:18, "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
Perhaps, like me, you think that verse is a bit of an odd choice for a Valentine's event. As I wrote it out 15 times though, I had an opportunity to think about what it means and how it pertains to love. In the end I discovered that it's actually quite relevant. 
Today, February 14th, is a day that causes a lot of heartache for a lot of people. I myself could write a ridiculous amount of words dissecting how I feel about Valentine's Day. Typically I subscribe to the idea that the day is a highly distorted, misinterpreted minor Saint Day that somehow went mainstream. But the fact of the matter is that it has gone mainstream, and it's very hard to escape the effects of the expectations it now raises. For those who are single, the pain is very evident. Yes, the pure spirit of the holiday should simply be a celebration of all love - friends and family included. In truth, our focus almost always shifts to romance, so the day makes loneliness feel much more lonely. People in a relationship, however, don't escape the hurt feelings involved with Valentine's Day. It can be awkward to determine how to celebrate. Going "all out" comes off as cheesy or insincere. Doing nothing makes us feel left out of the love fest. 
So how does a verse about looking past the things of this world pertain to Valentine's Day? Perfectly, if you ask me! The holiday has become so focused on material expressions of earthly love that we forget how meaningful true love is. The verse directs our gaze to the eternal life we have in God. This also includes eternal love! Let's face it, no love that we experience here in the world is perfect and eternal. Even if we are committed to someone, or "stuck with" our family, our love is tainted by sin, and sometimes we decide to stop making the effort that love requires. Only with God is this not so. He sees the deepest flaws of our hearts, and still chooses us. He feels the rejection when we stray from his embrace and hide from him, and waits patiently, welcoming us back as if we'd never wronged him. He gives us every good thing, and is a constant partner through every part of our lives. 
God's love is amazing!
God's love is eternal. 

 

Don't hold back.

"Pessimism is my insurance policy," I said, "If I don't expect it to go well then I'll be pleasantly surprised if it does, and I'll be prepared if it goes how I predicted."
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the biggest lie I've ever told myself. And I've spent years telling it.  
Preparation is great. If it's raining, I wear my rain coat. If the paper is due on Wednesday, I have a rough draft by at least Monday. If the choir concert is next week, I'm drinking tea and staying hydrated every day. These are all things of certainty. Real events and tangible deadlines. How can we handle those times when the outcome is distant and clouded? What happens when the variables are human beings, who are so changeable? Obviously I thought I had the answer - Expect the worst from everyone. Protect yourself carefully by putting up walls of logic and apathy. 
This is not the way we were meant to live. Which is why it never works.
Unless the situation in question is something that honestly has little effect on me, I cannot help but get emotionally involved and desire certain outcomes. For a long time I was ashamed of this, but I've realised that humans were created to be passionate beings. God has given us minds that are capable of well-placed confidence (faith), forward thinking (hope), and attachment (love). His plan for us is the only insurance we need. James 5:13 says, "Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise." It's okay to get caught up in joy! Because when our preparations fall through and trouble comes, we can turn to God and trust that he has everything under control. 
A couple of weeks ago I read an awesome article (found here) that speaks out against the idea of "guarding your heart". It's an idea that has been innocently circulated among young Christians who want to remain pure. Secular culture has also mirrored the sentiment (or lack thereof). It's said that we should be careful about who we love and how we let them know, to keep ourselves from getting hurt and to make sure we have enough love to give to the right person. Is love a limited quantity? The world today makes a huge deal out of saying the words "I love you". Why is it so hard to acknowledge how important someone is to us? Love is both the easiest and the hardest thing to give. It's something we desire, but it also leaves us vulnerable. That's why trust is so important in relationships. A trusting and self-sacrificing love is sometimes hard for non-Christians to understand.
For those in Christian culture, withholding love goes too far when we take God's law of saving sex for marriage and extend it to ban most kinds of physical affection and deep emotional attachment. Some well-meaning mentors would have us believe that if we allow ourselves to love another person completely, then we're distracted from loving God with our whole heart. On the contrary, God opens our hearts, and our love for each other is fulfilled by God and feeds our faith! One of the best places that helps us to understand love is in 1 John 4, (here I quote verse 8 and 11-12) "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love...Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." 
In the end, no amount of preparation or protection can keep us from being hurt when something important goes awry. Our foundation and happiness lies with Christ, who gave his life to protect us, and still holds us close today. When we have learned to trust in his secure love, we can share that love with the people in our lives. Many times I've noted that relationships with my fellow Christians are deeper and more fulfilling. Perhaps this is because I can show them unrestrained love modeled by Christ, and receive the same in return. 
Our compassion is a continuation of the love we've been given freely, which will never fail us.