People are always leaving random reading materials behind at work. A stray newspaper here and there is always a good find for me. And then there’s all the little free advertising rags that get glanced at and tossed with a frequency that makes the forests weep. The other day I came across a devotional book of sorts. I shouldn’t really call it a book. It was more of a mass-produced magazine that a church must be able to order and then add their information in the front. It wasn’t anything super glossy. It wasn’t full of pictures. Since I’m the type of person who reads everything from toothpaste packaging to magazines, I had to take a look. The very first thing I landed on was intriguing, to say the least.
It was a commentary on love.
The basis was First Corinthians 13:7, from a translation called “The New Living Translation,” which said, “Love believes all things. Hopes all things. Endures all things.”
The cynic may say that sounds like a chump or a doormat. The romantic might grab the lofty wings of those words and pledge his eternally to his beloved.
I’m one of those people who believe that love is something you define personally. Love isn’t just the romantic-type of love that you think of initially. I’m sure cards and flowers can be fun from time to time, but any sort of gift or trinket is really pretty superficial if there isn’t any action behind it.
I love myself in the sense that I want to take care of my body and mind so that I am healthy and enjoy life. And the bitches taught me that I am capable of loving another creature more than I love myself. When I thought I was going to have to re-home one of them, my heart literally ached.
We’ve all felt that ache of heartbreak. Not the “We lost the big game” kind, but the “I gave him my heart and he crushed my soul” type, usually with a first love or in many cases with one that was never right to begin with or was immature. We’ve all heard the adage, “True love doesn’t have a happy ending because true love has no ending at all.”
Sure, we could get hung up on the idea that a true love is a one-on-one human connection. And maybe it is for some. But let’s push past that concept and look at true love as a manifestation of who you are. We need to enter every day with a genuine, real, and honest love for everyone with whom we come into contact, especially the ones who irritate us. Every living creature you meet, human or otherwise, gives you a chance to express love.
I’m going for more spark and less snark.
