POP QUIZ

POP QUIZ

Love is never theoretical; love is a practice, and life has a way of giving pop quizzes that reveal how faithfully I am practicing it. I am a work in progress. I know this to be true, but occasionally I unconsciously begin to think that I have arrived. Arrived where? I don’t know, but I slip into a mindset of satisfaction with self. Experience is the best teacher, and it has taught me that this mindset requires self-assessment. Sometimes, however, self-examination is a pop quiz, and I am blindsided. There is no time to prepare. The only thing I can do is take the quiz.

“Love is never theoretical; love is a practice” is an affirmation spoken almost daily in our home. Each day, I ask the source of the universe to guide and guard my practice of love. This practice has served me well, especially when I could have easily acted unlovingly. It has guarded my peace, an inward emotion that, under perfect conditions, should not be affected by outside circumstances. Yet what should be and what is, are often separated by one encounter with another person or one developing situation.

We endeavor to live drama-free, especially in our home. Unfortunately, life lived to the fullest measure requires leaving home, and interactions with others are inevitable. Others do not know—and may not care—about our disdain for drama or our declaration that “love is a practice.” They are not required to adhere to our agenda, so no matter the amount of effort I exert to maintain my utopia, interruptions have a way of straining my resolve.

The current series of pop quizzes started during a heavy travel schedule seven weeks ago. Many of my daily affirmations have been tested: we are positive, we are optimistic, we are generous, we are encouraging and supportive of each other and of others, we believe in our potential, and in both our strengths and weaknesses, the source of the universe supplies us with unimaginable support. Life has pushed me against the wall. I passed some of the quizzes and failed others. Perhaps the greatest stretch has been the practice of love.

Simply stated, I now understand like never before that “love is a practice” means becoming a supporting actor in the drama of others being played out on the stage of life, even when my preference would be to sit in the audience and listen to the story being recounted from a distance.

Somewhere in this seven-week menagerie of eating, drinking, resting, happiness, sadness, grief, pain, disappointment, counseling, loving, being loved extravagantly, death, funerals, graduations, losses, and gains, I was asked the question, “How do you show up for so many?” I replied, “I don’t know. I just keep practicing.”

Scripture Reflection: Galatians 5:22-23

PONDER THIS THOUGHT: Love is an action.

AGAINST THE WALL