Advent: Week 4 - LOVE

Welcome to the fourth week of Advent. We have already lit the candles of HOPE, PEACE and JOY. Today we light the fourth candle of Advent, LOVE.

I don’t know about you, but I think the word LOVE has been over used and under valued! Just my opinion. Just sayin’.

• In the 1960′s it was all about making love not war. 
• In the 1970′s it was all about free love. 
• In the 1980′s and 1990′s it was about be careful who you love or you could catch your death!
• And so on and so forth. 

We banter this word around like a baseball at a little league practice. LOVE has become a by word that is equated with sex. “If you love me you’ll have sex with me.” How quickly love dissipates when the special moment passes or there’s an oops as the result.

This is not LOVE. As we light this fourth candle in the Advent Wreath we are called to real LOVE. Not the kind that fades like the froth on the root beer as it warms. It is the LOVE of I Corinthians 13.

LOVE is patient, LOVE is kind. 
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 
It does not dishonour 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.

Then my favourite verse…

LOVE never fails.

This LOVE is NOT about being in LOVE. It is that LOVE that, no matter what, no matter where, no matter who, IT IS LOVE. It NEVER, EVER fails.

One of my favourite teachings I gave in my years as a minister was from Mark 12:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart 
and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength…
Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.

I used to turn the verses inside out or turn them upside down and say it thus:

When you have learned to LOVE yourself,
you can truly LOVE your neighbour
(including those who are not quite so neighbourly).
When you have learned to LOVE yourself and your neighbour,
then you can LOVE God with all your heart, soul, mind & strength.

How can we say we LOVE something or someone when we haven’t had the experience of self LOVE? That’s the issue isn’t it?

If I could learn to LOVE myself then the rest is much easier. The rest will all just fall into place. Because if I truly LOVE myself, I will automatically love everyone and everything else. This is the LOVE that we are called to today and always.

Please join me for my final installment of the Advent series, 
Christmas Eve, December 24th at 5 p.m. (PST).

Advent: Week 4 - LOVE