Following a Loose Thread of Love

I'm saving all the love
That I'm supposed to give to Jesus
So that I can give it all to you
And the Lord's gonna be jealous
But he ain't never seen you let your hair down
...I'm gonna give it all to you
("Saving all the Love" by Joe Firstman,
from the 2003 album The War of Women)

Ah! Love. I was preparing the Bible study for tonight's high school youth group meeting and came back across this song. I had forgotten about it, having purchased the album after accidentally seeing the artist in concert a few years ago. Don't ask me. There is just something appallingly, blasphemously funny about it that gives me a kick. I'm odd that way.

Anyway, the Bible study for the youth group. The curriculum session is focused on the difference between "love" and "compassion," but I stalled out with the whole notion of love. Valentines Day is coming up, after all, and it seems a relevant topic. We invent so many terrible ways of loving that a little remedial reflection could come in handy. Just for starters I would suggest that the songwriter, while delightfully clever, has gotten one thing fundamentally wrong. There really is no inherent conflict between love for Jesus and love for another. As I recall, he rather advocated the idea. I know, I know: hypothetically speaking there is that insidious danger of idolatry lurking behind every box of candy and bundle of roses. But as a species we seem far more likely to love each other too little than too much. I'm all for us letting our hair down a a little if that would help such a transformation along.

My concern for the songwriter, however, is less over his muddled spirituality than with the ego-centrism that has a way of masquerading as devotion. "I love you" too often means "I love me and you are one of the ways I indulge myself," which quickly becomes more about consuming another rather than honoring them.

So, what is love and how might we both celebrate and practice it? I have a few ideas that I hope to feather out between now and February 14. In the meantime, I'm hoping the high school kids can set me straight tonight.