LOVE, TRUE LOVE

For as long as my memory goes back into the depths my lengthening life I have enjoyed watching movies. For most of those years it didn’t seem to matter whether the movie was good or bad, I just enjoyed escaping into the make believe world being portrayed on the big or little screen. One of the saddest times of my life was when theaters phased out the double feature format, even though I had come to realize by that time of life that they seemed to always pair an ‘A’ level with a ‘B’ level movie. This disappointment was added upon those which came with the discontinuance of Newsreels, Serial Adventures and Cartoons. I do have to admit to the natural censorship which seems to occur as one ages, and I no longer find myself going out of my way to watch a horror movie and haven’t really been able to get into the attraction which vampires and werewolves have these days as they draw many to the theaters.

Since I didn’t intend this week’s thoughts to be on the history of movies, let me get to the point. Not long after it came out in theaters in 1987 I was introduce by my children to a ‘happy ever after’ movie called "Princess Bride." Over the years our family has worn out one video of this movie and I suspect the second copy will one day have to be replaced by a DVD. I have to admit to having fallen under the ‘unforgettable spell that lives in my heart’ which the producers promised as they promoted this film.

"Princess Bride" is a story of love between a servant boy, Wesley, and his master’s daughter Buttercup. He always responds to her every request with the simple sweet sentence “as you wish.” This wonderful story begins in the innocence of youth and ends with the greatest kiss ever recorded. Now that I’ve spoiled the ending for you, let me tell you of some of the things which happen in between. As a young man Wesley leaves Buttercup in order to seek his fortune so that he can provide the life for her he feels she so richly deserves. With a good-bye kiss they vow the eternalness of their love for one another. Years pass and when Wesley returns to his home land he finds Buttercup promised in marriage to the local evil prince. There are many adventures which pass before the greatest kiss, where Wesley is continually keeping Buttercup safe from the designs of the evil prince and other life-threatening circumstances, but the part of the movie I want to call to your attention is when the evil prince electrocutes Wesley into a ‘mostly dead’ condition. His life hangs very near death until his recovery takes place based on the firm foundation of his ‘Love, True Love’ for Buttercup.

I don’t think I gained an understanding of True Love from this movie, but in a very strange way it does help me keep the meaning thereof in focus. Over the years I have developed a personal definition of True Love which goes something like this: True Love is something we give, not something we receive – True love is given to others when we do all in our power to help them become the very best they can be – All other talk of love is just a variation on the theme of selfishness.

After you have pondered on the meaning of this definition of True Love, let me illustrate some of those counterfeit variations by writing down some of the expressions we hear using the word love when we, in all honesty, should admit we are manifesting some degree of our selfishness. “If you really loved me…” “I am sick and tired of always having to be the one to say I love…” “The spark of love has grown dim and cold and maybe if…” “You seem to be asking me to give up my love of self in order…”

Annually, sometime very close to the beginning of spring, we commemorate another act of True Love that, although it has been depicted on film many times, is for many a story which is far from fantasy or fiction. This story also has a Hero who demonstrates his True Love not just for one or a tiny chosen circle, but for all mankind. He spends his life telling of a path, which if followed, will bring to any who wish to trod thereon a life of abundance filled with progress generating trials, moments of exhilarating happiness, personality altering stewardships, uplifting and sustaining fellowships and ever increasing light to help them through times of cloudiness and darkness. He then gives His life in an ultimate act of True Love so that although we may be ‘mostly dead’ we have the possibility of having a life eternal filled with everlasting True Love experiences.

It is evident that for me He who is the author and actuator of this ‘Love, True Love’ we have been stumblingly trying to express is the redeemer Jesus the Christ. I know He has taught and demonstrated that all expressions of True Love can only be to ‘thee’ and not to ‘me.’ Through Him I am coming to know that I can approach True Love only as I move away from selfishness and towards selflessness. Because of His example I know I must try to concentrate more on stewardships and less on personal successes.

Most of the time I am overwhelmed by the miles and seeming millennia which still lie ahead on my quest to inch closer to living a life filled with the True Love demonstrated by the Atoning example of Jesus the Christ. It is His Spirit which gives me the brightness of hope that I was brought into existence by a True Loving Heavenly Father who instilled within me the potential to increasingly be capable of being a giver of Love, True Love.