Giving Up and Giving All

We can be challenged to develop an attitude of humility before God, resulting in acts of service
toward others. We read in Ephesians 4:
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,
2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love...

The coinciding of all these special days, such as Ash Wednesday, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Valentine's Day, and the season of Lent can actually send a powerful message to each of us, and I think that it deals with humility.  God sent His Son to earth, He humbled Himself to death as a man, but He was raised from the dead, and He calls us to new life if we would humble ourselves before Him.  Lent deals with humbling ourselves before God; Valentine's Day can be a day to reflect on serving one another - and isn't that what Jesus taught about the two greatest commandments?

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As the Lenten Season begins, we can think about the importance of humbling ourselves - before God
and the people with whom we interact.  In a passage that provides an indication about what Lent should be about, and really what Valentine's Day can be about, Philippians 2 states:
3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.
4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Today it's Ash Wednesday, and for a variety of religious traditions, this marks the beginning of the 40-day period prior to Easter, excluding Sundays, which falls on April 1 this year.  A search online reveals a number of articles about the coinciding of this day with Valentine's Day.  On the surface, one seems to be a day of celebration, while the other marks a period of pentinence.  As it's been pointed out on the CBS San Francisco website, Valentine's Day represents a "feast," while Lent marks a "fast." 

But, there is, or should be an element of humility in the commemoration of both.  Mark Merrill of the organization, Family First, wrote a piece a few years ago about the real St. Valentine.  He said:

St. Valentine gave his life so that young couples could be bonded together in holy matrimony. They may have killed the man, but not his spirit. Even centuries after his death, the story of Valentine’s self-sacrificing commitment to love was legendary in Rome. Eventually, he was granted sainthood and the Catholic Church decided to create a feast in his honor. They picked February 14 as the day of celebration because of the ancient belief that birds (particularly lovebirds, but also owls and doves) began to mate on that very day.

Merrill relates about Valentine that he was a priest during a time when the Roman emperor had cancelled marriage, believing that was inhibiting people signing up to serve in the military - they did not wish to leave those they loved.  He writes:

But a simple Christian priest named Valentine did come forward and stood up for love. He began to secretly marry soldiers before they went off to war, despite the emperor’s orders. In 269 A.D., Emperor Claudius found out about the secret ceremonies. He had Valentine thrown into prison and deemed that he would be put to death.

As Valentine was awaiting execution, he fell in love with a blind girl who happened to be the jailer’s daughter. On the eve of his execution, with no writing instruments available, Valentine is said to have written her a sonnet in ink that he squeezed from violets. Legend has it that his words made the blind woman see again. It was a brief romance because the next day Valentine was clubbed to death by Roman executioners.

So, according to this popular story, of which there have been a few variations throughout the years, including the contention that there were more than one Valentine, humility is a key element.

That desire to see couples experience marriage led a Christian organization, Food for the Hungry, to step outside its normal work to help couples in the Philippines.  According to a piece at the ReligionNews.com site by Gary Edmonds, the President and CEO of that ministry:

The cost of a legally recognized marriage prevented many couples in the community from getting married, so Food for the Hungry did something very unusual for a faith-based nongovernmental organization that specializes in global health and development. Clearly, weddings were not its typical foreign assistance project. But Food for the Hungry looks at the whole person, and its staff saw a need and a unique way to improve living standards. Marriage isn’t just a symbol. The Christian sacrament of marriage bonds couples to one another, to God, and it also creates positive, tangible growth in communities.

So Food for the Hungry sought out community leaders who agreed to sponsor couples. And what followed was a mass wedding for 48 couples who until then were not able to marry.

Edmonds concludes by saying:

I, for one, am always heartened to hear about joint efforts between Food for the Hungry, churches and community leaders that put love first. Love, I suggest, is another kind of food — for the heart.

There you have it - even though, as the CBS article pointed out, these two commemorative events have not fallen on the same day since World War II, there are some common elements.  You think of Valentine's as being about food: chocolate, romantic dinners, etc., and Lent, well, is sometimes about food, involving giving up food, or other items or practices.

I have heard it said that fasting can create a greater hunger for God, and I guess you could say that the practice of Lent can help us to concentrate more fully on Him.  Jesus is the bread of life, who gives us living water, promising we will not thirst again.  Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, He taught, would be filled.  And, playing off what Gary Edmonds said, experiencing and expressing the love of God, even in our earthly relationships, can provide satisfaction in our hearts.

We can be reminded that the real sacrificial love of Christ gives of Himself...and perhaps on this Ash Wednesday, - and Valentine's Day - we can humble ourselves before God and the people we love.  For the married, we can reflect on how we can truly serve our mates.  I believe a healthy marriage involves an atmosphere of service.  Christ gives us direction, and we can empty ourselves so He can fill us.