When Love Says Goodbye-

“You offended me by your comment (or that action, or no action...) and even though I know you probably didn’t mean it that way – I am leaving! And, oh by the way, ‘I love you.’

Tragic words whatever the scenario. It can be a husband and wife who have spent years together experiencing a struggle and not willing to work it out. It can be parents and children who have hit an impasse and rebellion is staring them down. It can be best of friends who have shared life and secrets together suddenly going their separate ways. It can be church members who you as a Pastor have invited into your life, had them in your home, counted them as close friends, and suddenly they are walking away.

Whatever the situation, after the blow of the defection, the words ‘I love you,’ sound so empty and hollow. The mind races to try to comprehend and sort out those words. ‘Well, if you love me,’ you say to yourself, ‘then why are you leaving?’ Again you think, ‘If you love me why not try to work this out?’ ’If you love me don’t give up on me!’ ‘If you love me stay with me!' The mind races into the early morning hours trying to figure out those emotionless and empty words - I love you!

Love and the expression of it have become trite and cheap in our society. There is no substance to it anymore. It has become empty words coming from an empty heart!

The Message Bible describes true love this way:
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never dies. 1Co 13:3-8

God, help us return to a love of the heart and not the head. Help us recapture these qualities of love and once again put these actions to that phrase ‘I love you’ so that once more it will have meaning!

True love will warm the heart not confuse it!