CityView Magazine - Fayetteville, NC
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/24236
faith DIVINE VALENTINE Love and relationships are a gift from God | By Dr. Ernie Johnson of a love wake-up call for us. For just one day out of the year we are encouraged to go to the card counter in order to find a perfect way to simply say “I love you” to someone special. Perhaps in this instance we should thank the merchants for reminding us to do something we should do far more often. L Love expressed can have very good outcomes. It is good to go out of your way to express love, be it with a single rose or a dozen or with a card. Inherently, that’s a very good thing! But amid all this discourse about love I would be remiss if I did not point out that love quite often is truly found in the places we least expect it, often in the humblest of places. In fact, love is best when it’s least expected. A kind deed done for someone who is not looking for one can warm a heart and release a lot of joy. A spontaneous hug gives it’s own immediate reward. The simple act of losing oneself in the needs of another gives love a home where it can take root and thrive, bringing light and life to all around. In the Bible we are told, more than once, that God is love. And the way He shows His love to us is through giving. God so loved that He gave — of all things — His only Son. God’s love is all about relationships and the God of all creation desires a relationship with you and with me. He forgives the worst in us and invites the best from us. His son is His valentine to us. In Him there is light and life. As we read in I Corinthians 13, “love never fails” and, “Love bears all things, hopes all things, believes all things, endures all things. Now faith, hope, love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.” So, as you approach the Valentine in your life, get extravagant in expressing your love. This is no time to be timid.CV Dr. Ernie Johnson is the senior minister of Highland Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville. ooking for love is a major preoccupation these days, but love is elusive for many because we go looking for it in the wrong places. We go on-line to the latest and best hook-up websites hoping to meet Mr. or Ms. Right. We overindulge in the things we most enjoy only to discover that too much of a good thing is almost always a bad thing. We seem to think that the more we have, the happier and the more desirable we will be, but that rarely turns out to be the case. Let’s be honest: We do all sorts of things to find love or to complete the love we already have, so Valentine’s day is a bit 16 | Feb/March • 2011