Less words, more cheesecake

^“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.  But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” I John 4:7-8

John was writing to a decidedly Christian audience and it is important to realize that so that he is not misunderstood. He is not saying love is the same thing as God or that doing something loving is the same as being Christian. God and faith are much more complex than that. But he is saying that they go together. Just as faith without works is dead, faith without love is dead too. To say you love God and not act in loving ways toward others is to live a lie.

A few years ago, Gary Chapman wrote a book titled Love is a Verb. It is a heartwarming collection of stories about how choosing to show love can have a powerful impact on people. I think it is something we know, most of us anyway, but in practice it is so easy to forget.

Grammatically speaking, love can be a noun, a verb, a gerund, a direct or indirect object, but I think Chapman is on to something when he says love is a verb. When someone does something loving, something powerful happens. Mere words are powerless.

Annette Fussell understood this. Annette was the mother of Deena Ellis, our Manager of Security at Parrish Medical Center. She showed love in many ways to her family and friends as they readily testify, but her love reached far beyond her family. She was especially known for loving to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the men and women of the local Fire Department.  For years, every Thanksgiving Day, a parade of units would swing by her house throughout the day to have love served up by the plate full.

At her memorial service last week, the Fire Department sent a four-person honor guard to acknowledge the impact of her life on them. Many other firemen came to pay their respects as well. I told them that when they saw her in the kitchen all covered in flour dust, they were seeing God in a very clever disguise.

When she came across a new cheesecake recipe, and she was always looking for new recipes so this happened with regularity, she’d bake it and send it with Deena to share with the security department team. It was never really about getting their opinion of the new recipe. She loved doing it and loved hearing about the smiles on the faces of “her boys and girls” as they gobbled it up.

There is a quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi that says, “Preach the gospel. Use words if necessary.” He probably didn’t say it, but he gets the credit anyway. And when it comes to preaching, it is necessary to use words, of course, but it is much more effective if it isn’t only words. So even if he never said it, it makes sense to me. Without loving deeds, loving words are "sounding brass and tinkling cymbals."

So, yes we need to say “I love you” and yes we need to use words to tell people about God’s love, too.  But we can learn a thing or two from Annette Fussell. For love to really hit home, sometimes what we need is less words and more cheesecake.

Happy Valentines Day!

Jerald

 

All opinions posted here are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect those of Parrish Medical Center.