What's love got to do with it

What's love got to do with it?
By Julie Whitefeather

“I come here for a breath of fresh air now and then. I do appreciate your blog. I am single—and am very frustrated in my search to love someone. When I look at couples around me—straight or gay—I silently thank my creator that love exists. It is such a blessing. How anyone could hate someone for loving? Thank you for having the courage to encourage love.” – Jo Ann

What’s love got to do with it?

It is often said that “The prophets longed for these times.” What that means, is the common thought that we are living in the last days. Whether we are, or are not, who can say? I often kid with Mother Superior that my retirement plan is the second coming.

Still, people have been talking about the imminent return of Christ since the Ascension.

Now you might ask yourself what any of this has to do with love. The answer, however, is simple. Whether or not these are the end times there are definitely signs of the times in which we live. One of the saddest aspects of those times is that life and love are cheap commodities. The grim aspect of war is not a new advent in the history of mankind. It has been going on throughout all of recorded history. Still, life has never been considered so cheap and expendable as now. We live in an era of push button war fare, where humans are killed at the push of a button. It’s amazing, really, at how efficient human beings have become at killing themselves.

Yet while we are growing ever more efficient at death we seem to have a growing difficulty with love. There is a line from an old Beatles song that says “money can’t buy me love” but that doesn’t stop anyone from trying. When love, whether of a sister, or a sweetheart, should be a bastion of hope, rarely is this the case. It is not surprising that this is the case either. When people aren’t busy placing money over family, the same individuals are often busy entrenched in the ludicrous notion that other human beings need their approval. Instead of the notion that “it is not enough that I succeed, all others must fail” this is often supplanted with “it is not enough that I hate, others must hate, including themselves.”

Perhaps, in the end, one of the reason human beings have become so efficient at killing each other is that they have such a difficult time of loving one another. Yet if this is a sign of the times, there is also another sign of the times.

That sign is that there are still people in the world who are willing to stand up for what is right. There are still people in the world who are willing to love instead of hate. Who are willing to fulfill Christ’s greatest commandment “love one another as I have loved you” and do so without adding on provisionary statements.

One of the signs of the times is that there are still people with the courage to encourage love.

Go with God,

Julie Whitefeather