“Don’t need money, don’t take fame, don’t need no credit card to ride this train. It is strong, and it is sudden, and it is cruel sometimes, but it might just save your life. That is the power of love.”
This is a lyric from an 80’s song by Huey Lewis called, “The Power of Love”. There is a lot more to the song, but I seem just to remember this refrain from it. And as I was sitting down to write this morning, like happens to me way more often than I would like it to, a rock and roll tune was running through my mind and it turned out to be this one.
I have always had music playing in my head for as long as I can remember. Since I came to the Lord, I have sought to replace the rock tunes with hymns and sacred music, but I will still find myself daydreaming and humming along with some song that I hadn’t heard in twenty years. Most of the time I will do my best to get it out of my mind by listening to or thinking on a scripture song. But there are other times when an old rock song will get tied into some theme I had been studying in the Word. And that happened with this song.
I have said it here many times, that love is something I have struggle with my whole life. From my childhood I found few images of love in my life that match what I thought love was all about. I knew my father and mother ‘loved’ each other or so I was always told. But when I compared them to images from the movies or even other parents it didn’t make sense. They never seemed very happy.
As a student I was instructed to love by the nuns and priests that were my teachers. But when I looked at them and how they treated us and others I again did not see the love they told me God and Jesus have for me. I found it all very confusing.
Then things got really complicated when I reached puberty. I knew I liked girls and began to feel sexually excited by them, but I still could not figure out how love was supposed to fit into it. And as I got older and started dating, I knew I was supposed to feel love for one of them but that was hard to do if I did not know what love was! It was not just romantic love. Even in my family or with people I considered friends what I understood I should feel toward them I did not.
In many ways I felt isolated. Yes, I married into what I now see was a loveless marriage. And when my son was born, I thought I finally understood what love was all about. He could bring all those feelings I heard about into me, joy and the deep warm feeling just being in his presence. But when push came to shove after my divorce, I found I was able to separate myself from him and allow my addictions to smother those feelings.
With that brief background, I come back to this morning. One of my devotions talked about the ‘love chapter’ in the Bible and then quoted this, “Love is patient, it does not boast, it is not proud, it does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13:4) I never heard these verses when I was a kid or if I did they did not strike me in the way they do now. You see, I had it all wrong. I kept looking for love in this world. If my selfish desires or needs were not being taken care of that I must not be experiencing love.
That is where the song comes in. As I was seeing again this morning, as I have since I have experienced the unselfish love of Jesus and Him crucified, how God defines HIS love, the songs lyrics struck me. It is not money or fame or something you can buy. It is the most powerful thing each person can experience and when you do it rocks your world. But it is also not always easy because REAL love is self-sacrificing and consuming. And yes, it changed my life when I finally got it.
I saw everything different through the filter of Jesus’ love. I could see how deep my mother’s love was even if it did not meet my needs at that time. She like my father were doing their best and may I add did a pretty good job raising four kids into adults. I saw that my failures at loving relationships were not because I did not understand love. It was because love centered on self just doesn’t work. I saw I failed my son because self-love is even deeper than love between flesh and blood when Satan is allowed to direct. I see it now and sometimes cry from the loss of it all. But….
Today I am blessed because I live in His love. I have regrets and baggage, but God has given me ways to use even them for His glory. On top of it all, I live in a made in heaven relationship with my wife RuthAnn. No longer confused about love, she shows me what it is all about every day. No, my friend. It don’t take money, it don’t take fame and it certainly does not take a credit card to ride this train. It is a sure thing; our ticket has been paid for on the cross and no greater love is there than that.
Blessings John,
8/10/18
