Breathless
When my friend Jennifer responded by saying that she loved me, I quickly shot back with, “I love you more I win.” I was being cute, with a competitive…I’m gonna say it without taking a breath and without punctuation to convey my race-to-the-finish-line-declaration-that-I-loved-her-more-and-so-I-win.
After I wrote it, I looked at that breathless six-word-sentence and saw an additional meaning: The more you love, the more you win.
I believe that’s a 100% true statement. I’m absolutely sure of it. I’m not absolutely sure about politics or the best man or woman for anything but I’m absolutely sure that if you spend your life loving as much as you can, you have more love. Simple. You win.
I thought of another, often repeated phrase: love wins. This is not a reference to the book with that title and any subjectively controversial theology connected to those two words. I’m just talking about the idea that love bats last and love hits it out of the park.
No matter who wins the election today, in the end, love wins.
And we do have some control over that.
That’s pretty powerful, really. No matter who we voted for, no matter what choice we might have to make or take, love is always the right thing to do. Love is always the right way to be.
Sometimes love looks a little different than you think it should—as in “tough love.” Or painfully honest love.
Sometimes having a hard conversation can be the most loving thing. It’s loving because the valued relationship is worth the work and the effort is evidence of real heart.
Later today, tomorrow, next week, there will be some conflict in families and neighborhoods and churches and—fill in the blank.
So go be love.
I’m stoked because the TV series “This is Us” is back. If you saw the premiere this week, you maybe agree with me—that show is kind of a miracle. I mean, the way they managed to incorporate current events—showing us on a global scale, “this is us?” Brilliant. One of my favorite things about the show is the honesty in the relationships. They are uncomfortable, painful, sometimes gone-sideways and haywire and always a work-in-progress—awful and beautiful depictions of real life. Real love. This is us is not often tied up in a nice, shiny bow.
But what a gift.
Love: It works. It redeems. It prevails. It always wins.
Be breathless, get and give as much love as you can, while you can. Squeeze it in. Be all in. Be love.