Defining Moments

I Love What?

Since Valentine’s Day 2010 is upon us, let’s talk
about love. Do cards, candy, flowers, jewelry, pajamas,
teddy bears or candle-lit dinners really prove
one’s love for another? All-too-often, those expressions
of “love” are little more than guilt-inspired attempts
to fulfill what many feel is our forced obligation
to participate in another Hallmark holiday. Real
love involves commitment, regardless of the accompanying
trinkets or the date on the calendar.

You make your strongest commitments to that
which you love most. You can say you love something
or some one, but your level of commitment to
that entity will speak much louder than words.

For example, last week we (most of us) watched
the Super Bowl. How can you tell when a person
loves her team? Well, what commitments
is she willing to set aside in order
to express her love?

Christianity Today, in an online article
entitled, Sports Fanatics—How
Christians have succumbed to the sports
culture—and what might be done about
it, told the following story”

“In Warren St. John's Rammer Jammer
Yellow Hammer—a fascinating account
of the lunacy that is University of Alabama football—
the reporter recounts a conversation with a
Mr. and Mrs. Reese in their $300,000 motor
home, purchased exclusively to travel to Crimson
Tide games. The couple, it turns out, had missed
their daughter's wedding because it fell on the
same day as the Alabama-Tennessee game. They
said they had managed to make the reception, and
noted that they had asked their daughter not to
schedule the wedding so as to conflict with the big
game. Asked why he did it, Mr. Reese could only
shake his head and respond: ‘I just love Alabama
football, is all I can think of.’"

Don’t get me started on the love of sports supplanting
faith commitments like attending church,
serving the body of Christ and committing resources
to accomplish His work. Please don’t get me going
on the “Church of AYSO” with open-air services and
throngs of congregants on any given Sunday.

It was obvious I loved basketball from the beginning
of high school, on through college. How could
you tell? I was committed—committed to long practices,
challenging seasons, hours-on-end practicing
lay-ups, rebounding and hook-shots in my backyard
and even inside my garage (when it rained). I actually
received the award for “Gym Rat” on my high school
team because of countless hours voluntarily spent on
the hardwood. Was that wrong? Not necessarily, but
things I loved less (dances; dates) were sacrificed for
my love of basketball. (Okay, terminal shyness
had something to do with that too).

So, as a Christian, can you honestly
say—not with words but with what you’re
willing to sacrifice—that you love Jesus
most? If not, may I repeat something with
which I challenged the LOCC flock in my
most recent sermon? “Make doing His will
the most satisfying thing in your life; the
thing you love most.”

Oddly enough, the hungrier I’ve become
for doing God’s will, the more my appetite for
things like basketball, temporal pursuits and
worldly recognition has diminished. I’m not saying
one must abandon all recreation, hobbies and pleasure
to truly commit to God. But, unless those things
take a distant second by word and deed, we might
well imagine Jesus asking us what He asked Peter:
“Do you love Me?” (John 21:15, 16, 17).

“My little children, let us not love in word
or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”
—1 JOHN 3:18 NKJV