Love me tender - 13 November 2007

So sang Elvis Presley in 1956. He obviously had a lot to say on the subject because the single lasted all of 2 minutes 41 seconds, so maybe the title should be ‘Love me tender, love me quick!’.

I spent some time thinking about the phrase ‘love me tender’ before I started writing this. The song lyrics to ‘Love me tender’ talk about ‘never let me go, you have made my life complete’, and that got me to today’s point, and only in the second paragraph!

We spent some time yesterday focusing on unconditional love, and to my mind, ‘never let me go’ ties in very well. Is love an act of will, or does it just happen naturally? I think that when all is well with a loved one, it happens naturally, and the acid test occurs when it becomes an act of will. That is when the patience gets tested, and some heart searching and resolve is required to continue. Reaching out in love often tests the depth of that love and whether it is real or not.

How does God feel when we carry on our own little way, completely ignoring his leading while we believe we know what’s right? The ‘never let me go’ clause probably gets a serious workout at that point. Fortunately, God has unlimited love capacity. And that’s the great thing – we are forgiven people because of that, although that’s no excuse for our actions in the first place, and that’s true in pretty much any circumstance.

I suspect that tolerance within love is an issue we all face at different points in our lives. Love can be tough at times and is almost a question of grinding it out. Tough love is a point I’ll be coming back to later in the week. But, generally, the resolution of tough times strengthens our resolve within a loving relationship providing we haven’t got to the ‘conditional’ scenario as I talked about yesterday.

Today’s challenge (apart from humming Love Me Tender all day!) is to reflect on God’s unlimited love capacity. Take That sang ‘How deep is your love?’. In God’s case, infinitely. As children of God, isn’t that great news.