Decades ago, a popular song said “Love is a many splendored thing.” Indeed it is, and I have been blessed to know this throughout my lifetime. This coming April, Jeannie and I celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary, and every year of our courtship and marriage she has shown me what love is.. She has given me love in every way a human being can. And she has been a means through whom I have experienced the love of God.. I have decided to make “Love” the 2020 theme series here on Oboedire, and I dedicate this series to Jeannie, the love of my life.
Our desire to be loved is the deepest desire, and I believe it is so because we are made in the image of God. When we open ourselves to this Reality, we find that the love of God not only becomes alive in us, it flows through us to others. Each week, over the course of this coming year, we will follow the flow of love from its inward manifestations to its outward expressions.
We find ourselves in a love-starved world. Individually and collectively we hunger for love. So, this series is more than a sentimental examination of a beautiful idea, it is a call to be lovers of God and others as a means of shining light and giving life. Our souls and our planet depend on love in order to survive.
The need for love is particularly acute in our country right now. The past few years (actually, decades) have strained our will and capacity to love. The national renewal we need is a renewal of love. It is not an exaggeration to say that our problems, challenges, and sins are manifestations of a failure to love. We are once again in a great need for strength to love. [1]
I hope you will join me on this love journey. If you know others who would benefit from it, invite them to do so. It’s easy and free to subscribe to Oboedire by entering an email address into the ‘Sign Me Up,” box on the righthand sidebar.
When the early church was just getting started, the elder apostle John is said to have had only one message whenever he spoke to the community, ‘Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). I hope this series brings an increase of love to you and a fresh outpouring of love through you.
[1] Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s book, ‘Strength to Love’ (Harper & Row, 1963) made the three words part of our national vocabulary in the 1960’s. His book remains on my desk to this day, and I read from it frequently as a way of seeking a fresh inpouring of strength to love in my life.
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