HELLO TO LOVE

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.  But if any one has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?  Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth (I John 3:16-18).

While watching an old Bing Crosby movie called Rhythm on the River, Richard Carpenter noticed that a song called Goodbye to Love, attributed to an aspiring writer was referenced several times but the song was never played in the movie.  Carpenter wondered what a song called Goodbye to Love would sound like and began sketching out a melody and some lyrics.  He recruited John Bettis to actually write the lyrics and that is how one of the "shmultsiest" feel-sorry-for-yourself songs ever written was born in 1972.*  Actually, it is a beautiful song that fairly accurately depicts how a person who has lost at love feels for about six weeks--as ONLY Karen Carpenter could sing it: I'll say goodbye to love, no one ever cared if I should live or die . . .

If one gives any serious thought to the Christmas season and to the Easter season, he or she has to conclude that, unless the history is inaccurate, which it is not, God loves us so much that he sent his only son, Jesus the Christ, to die for us.  Still, the history and theology of the gospel is remote to one living in the present, suffering from loneliness, unless it comes with skin on.  Loneliness is the lack of emotional connection to another in one's immediate existence and it is here that the Christian gospel with skin on must enter.  One of the needs common to every human being is to be loved.  Christians are the hands and feet of Jesus, showing his love each day by taking it with them wherever they go.  By the way, giving the love of Christ is as much a human need as receiving it.  Human wholeness if found in the receiving and giving of the love of Christ.

So, what if an aspiring songwriter wrote a song called, Hello to Love?  How would it go?  Certainly it has the potential to become a much-loved Christmas carol; at least if Karen Carpenter could sing it.

Grace&Peace;
Tom

*Wikipedia, Goodbye to Love.