God of sacrificial love,
A friend really challenged me the other day. He was disappointed in something I said in a public setting, and he took it personally. Do you remember how stunned and defensive I was about it? (of course you do….) But as you and I talked about it, I came to understand it, and I was really convicted. It was personal for him. It wasn’t about some “issue.” It made him wonder if I really loved him.
I pray today for those who feel unloved. I pray for those who long for a valentine but whose longings are as of yet unfulfilled. I pray for those who have lost someone whom they loved and who loved them very much. I pray for those whose hearts have been broken by a spouse or a loved one. I pray for those who are struggling to do the work of love when they don’t feel like loving. I pray for those who don’t know down deep how much God loves them. And I pray that your love would pour through the streets of our city, our country, our world like the waters of Harvey, pulling down every edifice of hatred we have constructed and don’t know how to disassemble. Amen.
PS – God, thank you for my valentine, Diania Joyce Wagner Pace, that spicy redhead with whom I love doing life together and whom I asked to marry me in a mobile home 43 years ago this Sunday. (Thank you too that she said yes.)