Some thoughts on Valentine's Day and love

Uh oh. It seems that the date for this column should probably indicate its content. Rats! If the whole thing reads like it was written by a Valentine's Day grinch, I should just plead guilty.

It's almost certainly good for husbands like me to have a deadline that calls for something on the order of flowers, gifts, candy, seriously over-priced cards, etc. I have difficulty appreciating the Madison Avenue manipulation, but I don't doubt that clods like me need the shove.

It's not particularly what the pseudo-holiday has turned into that bugs me; what really bothers me is the reminder that so much in our society that masquerades in second-rate song lyrics and steamy TV as "luuuuuv" bears no resemblance to the real thing.

I listened as a famous singer on a TV morning show opined that he and his wife had just split up because "the sparkle wasn't there anymore." He was way past fifteen, so "puppy love" was no excuse. He evidently had actually believed too many of his own songs and was confusing love with "warm fuzzies" and body heat, the kind of "luuuuv" that bears precious little resemblance to genuine commitment that really means "in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer." The love god was originally an old Greek one, Eros, as Sheldon Vanauken ("The False Sanction or Eros"), C. S. Lewis, and I'm sure others, have noted. Eros has never lacked for worshipers.

Bowing before this god, our society has unleashed a demon who offers easy sanction for anyone wishing to commit almost any wrong, shatter any vow, break faith with God and society, and, in the sordid process, break the hearts of countless spouses and children. And the "luuuuv" god blesses the whole mess brought on by unvarnished selfishness.

How does our society respond? When we should turn away in nausea or shed tears, we turn to tabloids and gossip magazines that glamorize the carnage.

God help us to be both wise and merciful. When we fail in our marriages to love as we should — and we fail often — may we turn contrite hearts to our spouses and our God as we seek his grace and seek renewed power to share with each other our Lord's genuine mercy and forgiveness and love. If we can't share those things with our mates, I doubt that what we'll share with others will be worth very much.

Oh, and let's be merciful, too, to those who have fallen and failed seriously in this regard, and whose genuine sorrow shows that they know it, lest we find ourselves looking down our noses when we need to look inside and realize that we too are totally dependent upon mercy and grace every moment.

Fellows, you really ought to invest in a card and maybe some flowers or candy, too. (My wife prefers cash.) But your gift will mean a whole lot more if your beloved knows that behind it is the kind of genuine, unselfish love that helps with dishes and diaper-changing before it forks over the flowers.

Curtis Shelburne is pastor of 16th & Ave. D. Church of Christ in Muleshoe. Contact him at [email protected]