Love is a Choice!

THE REV. GARY L MOORE
GUEST COLUMNIST

Next week thousands upon thousands of dollars will be spent to celebrate that all so common day of love known as Valentine's Day. Young and old, male and female will search to find that special expression of love; whether it's candy, flowers or a card. The Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide.

Something I bet you will never see on the inside of a Hallmark card … "Love is a choice". No instead you will read some warm sentiment, some sappy saying, words describing how we feel about that certain someone in our life. But never do we hear love described as a choice. After all we fall in love. We are love struck by a mischievous, winged child, whose arrows pierce the hearts of his victims causing them to fall deeply and madly in love. After all love is some mystical force far beyond human comprehension and reasoning; it certainly cannot be a choice.

Yet in Romans 5:8 the Bible tells us "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."  The Moore paraphrased (no this really isn't a translation) says "But God showed his love for us, in that while we were still sinners and didn't love him, Christ chose to die for us all." Love is a choice.

The Message translation of John 3:16 tells us, "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.” Love made a choice.

This October my wife Libby and I will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. While many women would not consider it very romantic, my wife knows me and she knows my heart. So when I tell her I choose to love her, it means far more than any Hallmark moment.

We all face things in our lives, events that can strain even the best of marriages - work, death, health, temptation, finances. And even when things were at their worst, even when I didn't feel those gushy feelings, I made a choice; I chose to love my wife.

There have been other times in life when I had to choose. If you are honest you have been there too. Those times in your life when it seems you just could not forgive and forget; when you could not love.

I must admit that even as a pastor I have experienced those times also.

I could not imagine how I could even be in the same room with this person. My resentment, my rage just seemed to grow. But as God began to deal with me through that scripture in Matthew 5:44 “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, …” and then the scripture in Matthew 22:39 “ … Love your neighbor as yourself.” and finally John 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” I couldn’t resist God any longer, I made a choice. I told God as openly and honestly as I could that I could not love this person in my own power. I then sincerely asked God to help me to love like Jesus.

It took some time, but over many months God began to change my mind, my attitudes, my very heart. My choice to love someone I deemed unworthy of love, not only fulfilled Jesus' commandment to love all. But changed my life forever.

Love is a choice; make your choice today.

Reverend Gary Moore is the Senior Pastor of sure HOPE Christian Assembly in Middletown, Ohio.
Visit us on the web @ www.surehope.org