What If Valentine's Day Was Different

On the eve of Valentine's Day I'm thinking about the myriad of emotions people feel as this holiday approaches.  Some people love it and some people hate it.  Some people hate Hallmark for creating another reason for us to spend money on cards and frill...the pressure.  Some feel anticipation and the hope of romance while others feel dread and the sting of loneliness.  I can see legitimate reasons for feeling all of those things on a day where there is built up expectation of love and romance.

I've also done a little reading about the history of this holiday.   There is more than one version of the story but all of them agree that this day was named after a Roman Catholic bishop named Valentine (there were three Catholic saints during this time period named Valentine but one who seems to be most commonly associated with the holiday).  He refused to comply with an unjust edict of Roman emperor Claudius II that said no soldier was allowed to marry.  He performed marriages in secret until he was found out.  He felt the edict was unfair and helped others at the cost of imprisonment.  When told he must deny his faith in God he refused at the cost of his life.   His life ended as a martyr.  How should we celebrate that?   Flowers and chocolate obviously.  Like all holidays it has morphed into something different.

Please know that I enjoy any excuse for Jeff to tell me how much he loves me and to take me on a date.  I'm not recommending we boycott Valentine's Day or lecture everyone we meet about the history of the holiday.  I am challenging myself and anyone reading to just think about it in a different light this year.  Instead of thinking about whether or not our romantic expectations will be met or kill ourselves finding the perfect card for someone, why don't we think about how we can demonstrate God's love to someone tomorrow?  What if we focused on that?  

What if we used some or all of the money we would usually spend on a date to give someone else a meal?

What if we take flowers to a widow who may feel the sting of loss on Valentine's Day?

What if we invite someone to spend time with us who could use a friend?

What if we finally, in the spirit of St. Valentine's courage, said yes to something God has been telling us to do?   Even in the face of our fears.

What if we really thought more about how we could love the poor, the slave, the orphan, or the widow...above and beyond our normal caring...instead of ourselves.  

Maybe if you run in the same circles as I do you can get a little numb.  It could be that we know too much and are involved too little.  The internet has made us aware of so much brokenness that we don't even feel shocked anymore.  We can't let that happen.  While there is still breath in our lungs we cannot stop caring.  We have to make ourselves look their way.  We have to make ourselves stop and listen.  It's easy to ignore the voices of the vulnerable because they are so drowned out by louder ones.  The screaming voices of consumerism, entitlement, politics, petty arguments, and the always obnoxious white noise of our busyness just never seem to go away.  It's so easy to pander to these voices because of their volume.  The vulnerable whisper if they can even speak at all.  They are overlooked and ignored most of the time.  They don't get to come to the microphone make a motion at the meeting.  They can't pay someone to lobby for their interests.  They can't start a movement via social media.  They are at the mercy of the rich, the law makers, and their oppressors.  They wait on someone to come to them.  They cannot get to our well insulated lives to ask for what they really need.  They may not even know how to put words to it.  I am well acquainted with one segment of the population who are dying to be loved but they have no idea how to ask for that.  You guys, they shouldn't even have to.

If we really look around us or spend time with someone who is in such a vulnerable place I think we will find ourselves having to answer these questions...even if they're never uttered out loud.


Will you really love me?

Will you love me even if it's inconvenient?

Will you love me if it threatens your comfort?

Will you love me enough to sacrifice some things you want?

Will you love me enough to change your schedule...or your lifestyle?


Will you love me if I don't know how to love you back?

Will you love me enough to fight for me and speak for me?

I hear the voice of Someone else echoing through those questions too.  Someone who loves them just as much as He loves you and me (and I hope you know how much He does).  I hear the voice of Jesus through pages of scripture telling me that loving Him means loving others.  It means obeying Him, even when it's scary and hard.  It means putting others before myself, even when it's not convenient.  It means losing my life so that I can really find it in Him.  It means surrender and sacrifice.   It means real freedom and joy.  So, when I hear Jesus ask, "Will you really love me?" I know He is asking a loaded question.  He isn't asking for my words of affirmation or a sentimental card.  He is asking for my everything so that He can be my EVERYTHING.  He wants to give me grace and love that I cannot comprehend.  He intends to give His love to others through me...and not just to the people who already love me back.

I pray that we will absorb the deep love that God has for us and demonstrated through Jesus tomorrow.  YOU ARE SO LOVED.  I pray that we will also find a way to tell someone else the same thing.  To remind them that they are not forgotten and unseen.

Someone needs to hear, "You are precious, and important, and deeply cared for.  God loves you and so do I."

Let's celebrate that kind of Love this time around.  Happy Valentine's Day (eve).