Are you sitting down? Because you might want to be when you read what I have to tell you.
In the United States, Valentine's Day spending in 2022 is estimated to reach 21.8 billion dollars. Yes, you read that right. Billion with a B!
Now for those of you who are picking your jaws up off the floor, this number actually reflects a downturn compared to recent years. Spending patterns are changing related to this holiday of love. In 2020, Valentine's Day spending reached 27.4 billion dollars.
I know many people who sit on opposite poles during this week’s holiday. Some love the opportunity to share their love and affection for others. However, others feel the commercialization involved in this 20+ billion-dollar holiday ruins any of its authenticity. And still others just enjoy the excuse to eat candy and chocolate-covered strawberries.
Whatever your view on this holiday, I think everyone can admit that the desire to love, and be loved, is present in all of us. It’s that desire that modern marketing is tapping into each February.
As I was thinking of the polarization of this holiday, it reminded me of reactions I’ve seen as a pastor to a passage in Scripture about love - 1 Corinthians 13.
This chapter, known by some as “The Love Chapter,” wasn’t originally written to be read at weddings or be thought of as cliche. Virtually all of our experiences with 1 Corinthians 13 occur in a very different context than the original one.
1 Corinthians 13 was written to a group of Jesus followers who frankly did not love well.
For example, in chapter 5, the church didn’t love well in protecting the vulnerable and calling out the sinful and abusive behavior in their midst. In chapter 6, the church didn’t love well in that people were taking each other to court in unnecessary lawsuits. In chapter 11, the church didn’t love well in how it ate meals with the rich arriving early and eating all the food, leaving none for the poor who arrived late. In chapter 12, the church didn’t love well as people used their gifts with ego, pride, and selfishness.
On the heels of all of this dysfunction and lack of love, Paul writes words that many of us know well.
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”
Today, we also live in a world where people don’t love well. We don’t love those who’ve failed - we often just discard them. We don’t love those who are outside of our tribe - we seek to own or destroy them. We don’t love those we fear or don’t understand - we push them as far away as we can.
A thought settled in my mind and heart this month. Despite the “overuse” and cliche nature of 1 Corinthians 13, we still long for the kind of love described by Paul to be real and true. We want to believe it’s possible and not just imaginary. We want to be loved with a love like that.
God’s unfailing love is what our soul longs for and what we will always need. We may not have experienced the “patient, kind, always hopeful, never-gives-up” kind of love from the people around us. But our souls long to experience this from God.
When we don’t go to God to find this love, we turn and begin searching for it in other places. As Augustine famously said, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”
As our culture celebrates love, I wonder what God might be trying to say to you about His love.
-Where have you been looking for something else other than God’s love to bring peace to your restless soul?
-In what area has fear of being hurt or disappointed kept you from experiencing God’s love expressed through another person?
-What doubts or questions in your mind have kept you from embracing God’s love?
The love Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13 seems so foreign to us because God doesn’t love like the world does. He loves us with an unfailing love. It’s a love we cannot find anywhere else, a love that we cannot get enough of. In their song, "Living Water," Shane & Shane sing:
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As you walk through aisles at stories filled with chocolates and stuffed bears or see ads for flower bouquets on the websites you visit, let those images remind you that you are loved with an everlasting love!
I pray you can read 1 Corinthians 13 this week with fresh eyes, considering God’s love afresh and anew. As you receive that unfailing love, you have something to offer the world which even 21.8 billion dollars can’t buy!
Scott Savage is a pastor and a writer with the coolest last name ever. He leads Cornerstone Church in Prescott, Arizona. Scott is married to Dani and they are the parents of three “little savages.” He helps hurting people forgive others through his Free to Forgive course and you can read more of his writing at scottsavagelive.com
