‘Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him’: For the Love of Valentine's Day

"Anything less than this complete trust...would not be love, anything less than pure trust would be a kind of careful negotiation. A careful negotiation isn't love. A person must be willing to be dashed on the rocks or made the fool in exchange for a relationship in order for pure love to take place." ~Donald Miller "Searching for God Knows What"

 Valentine's day is right around the corner. Red and pink and hearts are everywhere--it's fabulous! Scary Valentines. Cutesy Valentines. Monster Valentines. I love them all really. I love chocolate and flowers and stupid, overstuffed animals. Like, I kinda wanna throw up in the back of my mouth a little, but in that really satisfying I-ate-too-much-cotton-candy-at-the-fair kinda way...

And all the really bad love songs come out at Valentine's Day...

I could go on, but this could get ugly...

Love is messy. It's this series of power moves... trying to find the right balance. Always asking "What do I mean to (insert name here)?!" And if you're anything like me, you always over think everything in the most fabulously catastrophic way...

Yet, deep down in my veins (ohhhh horrible love metaphor there), I really feel like true love, missing-puzzle-piece, soul-mate, you-complete-me love exists. (There I said it!)...

And I think real love, like soul-shattering, mind-bending love is always deeply traumatic because you have to be vulnerable... you will lose face... you will cry... you will be a mess... you will fight... it's just the human condition... The balance is to find someone who would do the same for you: be completely vulnerable, holding nothing back, throwing it all in.

Song of Songs 8:6-7
6 Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death,
passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
a raging flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love
all the wealth of one’s house,
it would be utterly scorned.

 There's really nothing else I need to say... and so I'll leave you with all my cheesy idealism and...