journey onWord with us

I attended a luncheon today where the speaker referenced the old 1984 hit by Tina Turner, “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”  Remember that song?  I know many of you are humming it right now!  It shot right to #1 on the charts, and at the Grammys that year, it won Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Tina won Female Artist of the Year.  It’s listed on the 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time and named #38 on Songs of the Century.  Ms. Turner was 44 years old when the song became a hit and it truly revived her career.

But… What Does Love Got to Do With It?

Let’s take a brief look at the lyrics.  Love is referred to as a “second-hand emotion,” and “a sweet old-fashioned notion.”  The writer asks, “Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?” The perspective of the song is from someone who has been deeply hurt; they are trying to claim they don’t need love or want to love someone ever again.  I think this may be one reason Tina Turner made a hit out of it; she had broken free from an abusive relationship herself and, in some respects, felt exactly the way the song read at that time.  Years later, she used this song as the theme for her autobiographical film.

We have all felt that way, haven’t we?  We’ve been deeply hurt.  We’ve been betrayed.  Perhaps great disillusionment followed.  “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be,” we have thought.  Or maybe, “It’s so much harder than it should be.”  Or perhaps, like the lyrics to the song, we promised ourselves, “I’ve been thinking about my own protection…”

But …What Does God Say About it?

Very simply, in I John 4:8 we read, “… God is Love.”

So if the truth of Scripture defines God as Love and defines Love as God, that is our answer.

We give of ourselves to help others because God is Love – even when it becomes more than we bargained for.  We give to our churches, our local shelters, our food banks and our missionaries, because God is Love – even when it’s our Starbucks money for the month.  We sit and chat with a lonely senior because God is Love – even when we’ve heard the same story every week.  We offer to help the neighbor with the broken foot with his yard work because God is Love – even when we have been on our feet at work all day.  We read that same book again to the 5 year-old child at bedtime because God is Love – even when we can hardly keep our eyes open.  And yes, we take a chance loving again because God is Love – even when we know that hurt could be just around the corner.

So to answer Tina’s question, “What Does Love Got To Do With It?”…

EVERYTHING!