Love Letters: What Loving Others Does for You

I have heard people say the phrase "Isn't it a coincidence?" more and more lately. However, I realize that a coincidence is a higher power than me putting things together. A while ago, I was in the eastern part of Michigan not far from the Great Lakes working with a manufacturing client. It was a family-owned business and was referred to me by a fellow professional who knew that our firm had done a lot of work with manufacturing businesses. So, why the referral you ask? It involved strained relationships between the person who started the company, the youngest son who had been named CEO, and the other family members working in the business.

Sitting in a coffee shop early one morning, I found a slightly used newspaper from a town close to this major city. I love it when this happens! The newspaper's feature article reported that a man named Ken Molnar turned his parents love letters from World War II into a book. His mother was an Army combat nurse and his father was an Army Air Corps pilot who flew more than 250 missions during the war. The two were engaged in 1942 but both were called into service before they could be married. They hadn’t seen each other for two years, but they exchanged more than 4,000 pages of letters. After the war ended, they married. Their son is planning a book based on their letters which will show the tenacious nature and dedication of genuine love.

It is clear that in the scriptures, our two greatest commandments are to love God with all our heart mind and soul, and to love others as ourselves. Thus, we must be dedicated and tenacious with our love for God and our love for others. It is not easy with all the conflicts and separations that go on as a normal course of life today. In this busy world, it is also very easy to just give up and move on. But we cannot give up, just like Ken Molnar’s parents did not give up.

C.S. Lewis said, "Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did." Maybe a better way to put it would be this: If you are having trouble loving someone and conflict is all around the relationship, go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to open your heart and mind to them. Ask for tenacious love that will not give up.

I have found that by praying, the Spirit of God begins to refurbish our mind. For me, the Spirit takes the words of Scripture and makes them real to me and in me. This gives us the ability to face life in a different way. When we encounter a conflict with someone, or a crisis of some kind the Spirit strengthens us with the knowledge of God which gives us perspective. This provides confidence and strength to see beyond the crisis or problem and to remain focused on God. I believe this is what is meant in Scripture when it says, "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

Recently, I was hospitalized with internal bleeding and while they were scanning my body to see where it was bleeding, they hooked me up to an infusion machine. Infusions have recently become very popular for even the healthy. They are a popular way to replenish fluids or nutrients in your body. In fact, many professional athletes use them. At your home or at an infusion clinic, you are hooked to an IV that delivers vitamins, minerals and fluids directly into your blood stream.

That is great that we can infuse things into our bodies that will strengthen us, but what about our souls? How do we strengthen our souls? Are infusions available for us? If so, where can we find them? Scripture tells us to pray this prayer: "May He grant you out of the riches of His glory to be strengthened and spiritually energized with power through His Spirit in your inner self.” The Spirit was sent to us as a helper, and He comes to strengthen us. So, when we feel weak, we simply need to ask the Lord to give us his strength.

I asked for His strength as I laid in the hospital bed recently. My mind could have gone in many different directions—the cancer is back, I have an ulcer, I am going to have a have part of my intestine removed—but my mind didn’t seem to go there as I patiently waited for the doctors to find the leak and repair it. Once again, the tenacious love of God carried me through a difficult situation. I received an infusion in my body and my soul! As I laid there my mind started thinking about a difficult person that I worked with.

Is there someone in your life that you find it difficult to love. Do you even have difficulty acting as if you love them? I would say that it happens often in this divisive world that we live in. And I have found that sometimes the best thing that I can do for someone is pray for them and let God do for them whatever I can’t.

I would say that writing 4,000 pages of love letters, and fighting a war while you wait to reunite with each other is tenacious love. Just the kind of love that we need for God and for others in our life. And when we give and receive that kind of love our souls are infused, strengthened and spiritually energized.

So, I asked the coffee shop if I could buy the newspaper. They told me I could have it. I took it straight to the job site and I had three people read it. We discussed what it meant to them and the situation that they were facing. My work with this family is ongoing. but it is going very well. Coincidence? I think not.