"Do You Like Me? Circle Yes or No"

 When I was in elementary school, before the days of the internet or cell phones, we had to do things old school...the famous passing of notes. Sometimes between classes, sometimes surreptitiously when the teacher wasn't looking. Sometimes those notes could even end up in the wrong hands and create all kinds of havoc and drama. 

The most memorable one by far was the "do you like me?" note. It always had a question followed by "circle yes or no." This still makes me chuckle to remember. The drama and waiting, with bated breath, to find out the answer to such a simple and forward question. These days things seem far more complicated and slow, despite being in such a fast-paced world. 

The simple response to "circle yes or no" was usually followed with a short term "going together." My mom used to ask me, "to where? where are they going?" She was SO out of it, in my young mind. Of course, we all knew you didn't actually "go" anywhere, you just walked the school halls together. Maybe you held hands or exchanged a forbidden kiss in the woods at the edge of the playground at recess. 

This would inevitably result in a breakup at some point, followed by a whole lot of hushed whispers and even more notes and a maybe even a big, dramatic scene on the playground. One person being the one broken up with, the one who still cared and was maybe seen as weak for doing so (the dumpee), the other one being the one who walked away with their head held high, because they were the one who didn't (the dumper). No one wanted to be dumpee. That person was seen as so lame. 

These days, in an age of perfectly curated social media lives and too many choices, most people are far too afraid of commitment and looking foolish to take any such sort of plunge. It seems that now, people spend an inordinate amount of time just "talking." The internet is loaded with tons of videos of how to decipher all this ridiculousness and figure out what he or she "really means."

Ugggghhhhh.

Meanwhile, all my friends and I are wondering if we will ever get to be grandparents someday. 

LOL.

(see former post)

I don't know who needs to hear this today, but can I offer another way to look at all this malarkey? 

The ability to love, to love deeply and sacrificially and without end, comes from the very heart of Christ. I know it takes a lot to be vulnerable, no matter what type of love you are giving today, as love always makes us vulnerable, but to have the love of Jesus in our hearts and the ability to love others, even and especially if they don't love us back, is always, ALWAYS a gift. It never makes any of us the "dumpee." It makes us the son or daughter of a king. The King.

Sometimes maybe our love needs to be tweaked. Sometimes we need to learn better ways to express it, but the ability to truly love, as expressed by the commandments of God, is always a gift and never one of which to be ashamed. It means our hearts have a great capacity and that is always something to be celebrated.

Peace be with you.

photo credit: Matt Maloney, stocksnap.io