Love… Feeling or Decision

Dear Reader:

If lucky… we grow up feeling loved … and for many of us it takes time to realize just how blessed we were and still are to experience it.

Scripture says… ” Love never fails…and now these three remain- faith, hope, love. But the greatest of these is love.”

A few weeks ago… one of the numbers Luke attached to my front steps ( years ago) fell off… the middle zero in 100 fell on the step below it. The last time Jeff came to cut grass he said he had some glue at his house that should work ( and it did) but during the intervening weeks while waiting… my address looked like 1 (blank spot) 0. A little confusing to UPS and FedEx drivers.

One day as I was walking around to the front of the house with a wheel barrel filled with pine cones I saw a UPS driver carrying a package halfway down the walkway… shaking his head.

When he saw me he yelled out ” I’m trying to figure this out-there are two different driveways and two front doors-is this a duplex? And if so… is one address 1 and the other side 0 ( zero) ? He had a cute sense of humor and a big grin … so I replied. ..

” No… it is just one home with two sides so when family and friends come… we can just spread out. The middle zero fell and I am waiting on it to be replaced-in the meantime I reckon I am resident ” zero.” I made an imaginary circle with a ” L” Loser sign!

He started laughing … ” Well after meeting you I think the ” zero” is really an ” O” as in ” O” you are the fun owner of a crazy house that just lightened my load.”

I like to associate fun and love together but consider this remembrance… Jesus ” commanded” us to love. so we know love is not just a feeling since we can not command feelings. Love is mostly a decision.

Richard Rohr reminds us that Jesus did not say: When you get healed, love. When you grow up, love. When you feel loving, love. When you get it together and have dealt with your mother/father/ husband/ wife/ children issues, then you must love.

No… the commandment for all of us is to love now… and thus fill the tragic gaps of every moment.

So until tomorrow…Let the ” Living Water” keep flowing through us.

Today is my favorite day

When we can still love people and circumstances that are not lovable… ” do love” … we are only getting a taste of what God’s unconditional love for us is all about… it can only be an unexplainable power from beyond ourselves.

About Becky Dingle

I was born a Tarheel but ended up a Sandlapper. My grandparents were cotton farmers in Laurens, South Carolina and it was in my grandmother’s house that my love of storytelling began beside an old Franklin stove. When I graduated from Laurens High School, I attended Erskine College (Due West of what?) and would later get my Masters Degree in Education/Social Studies from Charleston Southern. I am presently an adjunct professor/clinical supervisor at CSU and have also taught at the College of Charleston. For 28 years I taught Social Studies through storytelling. My philosophy matched Rudyard Kipling’s quote: “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Today I still spread this message through workshops and presentations throughout the state. The secret of success in teaching social studies is always in the story. I want to keep learning and being surprised by life…it is the greatest teacher. Like Kermit said, “When you’re green you grow, when you’re ripe you rot.”

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