Talk – “Love Actually”

I gave a talk last night about the L-word. I started with the story of how Nikki and I met, and what a completely unexpected turn our lives have taken with me going into ministry. Then we looked at several video clips from movies and TV shows and talked about the types of love portrayed in those clips. The clips ranged from true love (Courtroom scene from “Mrs. Doubtfire”) to material love (When Tom Hanks has to part with “Wilson” from “Cast Away”).

Here is a post I made on our youth blog before the talk last night:

As I prepare for tonight’s youth fellowship meeting, I’ve begun thinking about love. Not your everyday love, but real, true love. I’m sure you are all familiar with the following verses from 2 Corinthians, most notably heard at about every wedding you’ve ever attended:

“Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, it is not pompous,
It is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing;
if tongues, they will cease;
if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.
For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,
think as a child, reason as a child;
when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face.
At present I know partially;
then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.”

When we read this scripture, we’re prone to think about this in terms of loving another person – another human being. But we often show this type of love for material things. Things as trivial as a new handbag or a new cell phone.

I want to tell you straightforwardly that the odds of you experiencing this true love described in 2 Corinthians when you are in high school are very, very slim. Less than 5 percent. That’s not to say that you might feel such a strong desire to be with a person when you’re in high school that you think it could only be love, but when that person dumps you, or vice versa, the feelings really change, don’t they? You can go from totally, head-over-heels “in love” to “I hate you” in an hour. True love conquers all. True love doesn’t depend on what day it is or what the situation is.

So as we go into our youth meeting tonight (though I’m sure probably none of you will read this before then), I pray that you will open your hearts and minds to know that someone out there has this love for you. Someone cares enough about you to offer up his life for you. Someone wants an intimate relationship with you more than anything in the world. This is someone that will never fail you, never leave you, never abandon you, and anytime you want to speak with him, you don’t have to worry about him hitting the “ignore” button on his phone or simply not responding to your text. God is madly in love with you, and like it or not, that love is here to stay.

See you tonight-

-Jon