Love's The Only Rule

Flying like an aeorplane, crying like a lonely whistle from a long black train. Dance in the pouring rain, spit in the eye of a hurricane. Who says life has to be so cruel? Love's the only rule.

My lyrical highlight for this morning is on the song Love's the Only Rule. It, as a matter of fact is. Trevor is sick today, so we were unable to go to church, so I decided to let the lyrics take me to church. Metaphorically. (I know what you are thinking: Best.Church.Ever!!)

In the Old Testament there were a lot of rules. Rules about sacrifices, and rules about the Sabbath. Rules about what to eat and what not to. And, of course, there are the ten especially famous rules, The Ten Commandments. In the New Testament, when asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus answered, that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. That part isn't too hard, I mean God is perfect and amazing, and keeps us alive. Then he added another little detail, the second most important commandment which he said is like the first, love your neighbor as yourself. Yikes. It might be easier to follow a rule about never cutting my hair, or only eating with my left hand with a utensil made of pure silver! But those things don't matter to God. What matters is love.

So, why? Well, we don't hurt people when we love them. We don't gossip about them, and we don't ignore them. We don't cheat on our spouses, or abuse our children. We don't settle for doing just enough to get by because when we love we give our best. When we love our neighbor as ourselves, we don't make wars or enemies. More than that, we don't ignore those in need. We love them, and our love moves us to act on their behalf.

And of course, we can't love people if our hearts are not lost in love for God...so the first one has to be first so that it can bring about our ability to follow the second one! I am so not there yet! Maybe life is about striving to obey the greatest commandment well enough to obey the second greatest commandment. I wish that we all would try.

I love how jamming to Bon Jovi can serve as a reminder about what's what. :) You know that's good music!

Rock on friends! Love's the only rule!