We are in the season of Love and so I want to share something on love. We go through life grading ourselves on various parameters like our intelligence, emotions, memory, mental alertness…….
How intelligent are we?-Measure Intelligence Quotient. How well do we handle our emotions? Measure Emotional Quotient and so on. But when we think of love- How do we measure love? What is our love quotient? What do I mean when I say I love my son very much or I love my husband very much? Difficult question.
English is a one dimensional language and so the term ‘Love’ is used tossed around everywhere for want of a better term. It is used along with abstract things, non- living things, food, people, places and many other variables.
So we say- I love music or I love dance or I love pastries or I love nature with equal fervor as we say ‘I love my parents/children, family/cats, dogs /seasons etc’.
Unlike English, the Greek language which is multidimensional, distinguishes at least four different ways as to how the word love is used. : Agápe, éros, philía, and storgē.
Now coming back to the question what is our love quotient?
Paul explains the essence of love extremely well in 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter in the Bible and verses 4-8 tells me –
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.
Therefore, just as a rainbow is a multicolored bow in the sky, defined by the 7 colors (VIBGYOR), love is a multifaceted characteristic in our life defined by the 15 facets described by Paul.
In effect, how loving I am depends on how patient I am, how kind I am, how humble I am and so on…….
Jesus was love in action when he walked the earth, the symbol of that love is the Cross and the Cross embodies all the facets of love described by Paul.
Today I want to share a small story with you which really touched my heart. It is titled ‘A Simple Gesture’ and written by John W. Schlatter from Condensed Chicken Soup for the Soul. Though I have read it several times, it never fails to touch a chord in me, every time I read it.
Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed that the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles. Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry part of the burden. As they walked, Mark discovered the boy’s name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball and history; that he was having a lot of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend. Mark went home after dropping Bill at his house. They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, then both graduated from junior high school. They ended up in the same high school, where they had brief contacts over the years. Finally the long-awaited senior year came. Three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk. Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met. “Do you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?” asked Bill. “You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn’t want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away some of my mother’s sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide. But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up my books that day, you did a lot more. You saved my life.”
I often think- What if Mark had not stopped on that day? What if he had not helped Bill pick up the fallen things? What if he had not walked home with Bill and listened patiently to whatever he had to say?
Then he would have missed the most crucial moment of his life. The moment that he saved a life.
Mumbai is known as the city of opportunities. But I call it the city of lost opportunities. Where the terms that best define our lifestyle are ‘busy, ‘hectic,’ chaotic’. Where we rush from one deadline to another , one meeting to another, one event to another; and in that rushed life that we lead ,we often fail to register the small small opportunities that come our way daily, that could make a difference to someone. All of us tend to wait for our ‘big’ moments, the moments that we consider important, not realizing that a small moment has a potential to become a hugely defining moment of our life.
Life is full of uncertainties, we don’t know what the next moment may bring, and that is why we need to make every moment in our life count, A simple gesture…a kind word, a patient ear……a warm hug…. A steadying hand….a helping nature…We never know what impact these actions can have in someone’s life – a simple gesture can save a life.
Jesus commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves.
It’s not a choice, it’s a command. So how can we do it? Love is the fruit of the spirit and we cannot be a loving person in our own strength. We need to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us in this area of our lives. I like what Bishop William Temple writes:
“It is no good giving me a play like Hamlet or King Lear, and telling me to write a play like that. Shakespeare could do it — I can’t. And it is no good showing me a life like the life of Jesus and telling me to live a life like that. Jesus could do it — I can’t. But if the genius of Shakespeare could come and live in me, then I could write plays like this. And if the Spirit could come into me, then I could live a life like his.”
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