Love Is Not Like Chalk (Updated post from 6/19/14)

Some people say my love is like chalk, 

that I can write it on and erase it whenever I choose. 

Well, they're wrong. 

I use Crayons.

When I wrote this verse, so many years ago, before college, and before the military, it was the heartfelt sentiment of a guy that hadn't lived life enough to swear by it.  Now, I have.  After almost 70 years spent proving it, it has become a truth I find hard to deny, were I to try, and I have tried.  I always thought that an ability to erase a love felt was love never truly given.  If you can say to yourself that you have the ability to leave this person and just stop loving them, then you never truly loved them in the first place.  God ordered Abraham to kill Isaac, his son.  What God would condone this, much less order it?  I would have denied this sacrifice and offered myself up, instead.  In this way, I would have saved my son and still proved my faith.  But, how sad is it that he actually contemplated following through with the request?

Personally, I have only truly hated one person in my entire life.  I hated this person for years, for what was done to me, for how badly I was hurt for their own selfish reasons.  But, hate could not replace the love I felt for this person.  The hate I felt was due to the unrequited love she admitted  She never loved me.  She only used me... for 25 years.  Was it selfish of me to expect love in return for love given?  You just don't erase twenty-five years of love any more than you can erase a single day of it.  Love is, after all, a much stronger emotion than hate.  It took me another ten years, or so, to realize this simple truth. But, then, I had never hated anyone, until this point. 

What was done to me was heartless and cruel, but my hate was tempered by the constant memory of the love I felt, I always felt, and still feel, even today.  I still despise what she did to me.  No one should ever have to be put through hell for someone else's selfish agenda, certainly not for 25 years.  But, I learned forgiveness.  I owned up to my part in the drama, and this is a good thing.  Even if the perpetrator never recognizes their own failings, I still wish them a happier life and God's grace.  In this instance, it is all I was left with to offer them.  My children and everything I owned were ripped away from me. 

Can you simply love and walk away? Can you erase years of love at the flip of a mental switch? I thought I could, but, then, I forgot what I had written.  What I wrote was spot on.  I couldn’t stop loving the woman who gave me two great kids.  

Love is a hard emotion to get shed of.  I think it's one reason we try to replace it with hate.  The frustration and the hurt are so intense from losing our investment in the hardest of emotions, we strike back with hate, the easiest of the emotions we can reach for.  Because hate is so easy, we must always temper it with tolerance, understanding, and even a bit of honesty.  We must look inward to see if we don't own a share of the blame for whatever caused the loss.

So, when you tell somebody you love them, it shouldn't be a frivolous statement thrown out there like confetti at some drunken party. That would, most certainly, be lust.  Perhaps it would serve us better to consider if we could ever see ourselves erasing such a statement from our reality blackboard. If the answer is yes, maybe we shouldn't put the statement out there.  Throwing an important word like "love" around willy-nilly can devalue the emotion behind it, and "love" without emotion is nothing more than a hollow, selfish, feeling thrown out into the universe by a very shallow, selfish person, indeed.

"Forgive and give as if it were your last opportunity. Love like there is no tomorrow, and if tomorrow comes, love again."

-- Max Lucado

Editor's Note

(Re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card)

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider an alternate viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful and constructive discussion, in an arena of mutual respect, concerning those opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 22 years with the United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and, finally, a senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with the premier, world-renowned, Western Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects involved in pharmaceutical research.

Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, and wages his "battle" in the guise of the Congregation's official online blog, The Path, of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteered as the lead chaplain at a regional medical center.

Feel free to contact Pastor Tony:  tolerantpastor@gmail.com