This week, I’m struck that Valentine’s Day coincided with the first Sunday of Lent: a mash-up of hearts and heartbreak. While February 14th celebrates everything warm and soft and sweet we feel about love, Lent calls us to remember its cost.
We all know that we need love as well as want it. Yet, even though it feels good to love and be loved, we also know that loving can make us hurt deeply and badly. Why does something so good have to be tainted with such a down side?
In his book, The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck defined love as “the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” In other words, we can’t get to love without putting ourselves out there, into a position of risk. This corresponds to sociologist Brené Brown’s counterintuitive observations that she titles the “Power of Vulnerability.” Love comes only to those who are willing to wager disappointment and suffer loss.
Peck goes on to note that given this definition of love it’s clear that one of the primary ingredients needed for loving is courage. But he adds, that it also requires hard work.
Too often the lines from 1 John 4:8, 16 that assert, “God is love,” get used with a sort of Valentine’s Day gloss to flaunt the sweetness of God. Lent brings our heads out of such mushiness by reminding us that the divine love involves not only great courage and effort, but the ultimate display of vulnerability on the cross. God went “all in” on our behalf.
As far as symbols of love go, Valentine’s Day has nothing to compare to the heart of Good Friday.
For updates on my book, or more information about me, continue to check back to this blog! I will also be frequently updating my Facebook Author page, as well my twitter account, @AuthorMcNabb, and my LinkedIn account, Katie McNabb.
5 Responses to A Lenten Valentine