Monday 18th May - The Love Life

DAILY BYTE

A man walks into a restaurant with a full-grown ostrich behind him, and as he sits down, the waitress comes over and asks for their order. The man says, "I'll have a burger, chips and a coke," and turns to the ostrich. "I'll have the same," says the ostrich. A short time later the waitress returns with the order. "That will be 30.40Rand, please," and the man reaches into his pocket and pulls out exact change for payment.

Every day they come, and it becomes a routine until late one evening, the two enter again. "The usual?" asks the waitress. "No, this is Friday night, so I will have a steak, baked potato and salad," says the man. "Same for me," says the ostrich. A short time later the waitress comes and says, "That will be 80.20Rand." Once again, the man has exact change!

The waitress can't hold back her curiosity any longer. "Excuse me, sir. How do you manage to come up with the exact change out of your pocket every time?" "Well," says the man, "several years ago I was cleaning the attic and I found an old lamp. When I rubbed it a Genie appeared and offered me two wishes. My first wish was that if I ever had to pay for anything, I would just put my hand in my pocket, and the right amount of money would always be there." "That's brilliant!" says the waitress. "Most people would wish for a million dollars or something, but you'll always be as rich as you want for as long as you live!" "That's right! Whether it's a jug of milk or a Rolls Royce, the exact money is always there," says the man.

The waitress asks, "One other thing, sir, what's with the ostrich?" The man sighs, "My second wish was for a tall chick with long legs who agrees with everything I say!" (Edited from www.lovelaughs.com)

He got what he asked for in life and in love… Thankfully, a talking ostrich doesn’t appear every time our ideas of love play out in our lives. Because we spend a huge portion of our life, trying to figure out the meaning of ‘being in love,’ and we make some pretty big blunders in the process!

I hope the cringe factor in the BDC this week is not too high – because it’s really all about love… No, this is not just a leftover from Valentine’s Day. Brace yourselves because every conversation we have about life must also be about love – not only because the idea of love consumes so much of our own daily actions and conversations but because love is how Jesus framed our entire lives and his entire life. All of life is about love.

Love can seem a fluffy word – one without backbone or depth that can particularly be hashed and rehashed by preachers so that we lose the weight of its actual meaning. But, the scriptures we’ll encounter this week are particularly saturated with the deep, abiding, everlasting love of God, and they drive home our need to reexamine what love really means in scripture and in our daily lives.

How would you describe the love in your life today?

GUIDING SCRIPTURE

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NRSV)

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.