The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Galations 5:6
Life Question: What would we do for love?
It's been a month since the celebration of Valentine's Day. No doubt
many of you celebrated with dining out(I did), a romantic movie or just cuddled together on the couch. After all, Valentine's Day is a celebration of love, intimacy(closeness)and oneness with each other.....right??
The origins of Valentine's Day, however, are not as romantic as one would like to believe. Valentine's Day came about through its namesake St. Valentine, a holy priest in Rome who, along with
St. Marius and his family assisted the martyrs in the persecution.
Upon being apprehended, he was sent by the emporer to the prefect of Rome, who finding all his efforts fruitless to make St. Valentine renounce his faith, commanded him to be beatend with clubs and beheaded.
He met his fate February 14th about the year 270.
For 200 million of our brothers and sisters around the world living
in the restricted and hostile nations, this is a very real danger.
Not growing up in a spiritual household I had many challenges and
struggles to go through on my journey to God. I found myself on a very dark path. Not drugs, not drinking, not anything like that. I went into the arms of the adversary, the Devil. My path was that of occult practices, spellcasting and divination(Oujia boards are NOT a toy!).
That was my life for ten years. At the age of 25, I had a friend who helped me through this journey and because of his help, I've been a Christian for 15 years.
For this reason, I empathize with those who are persecuted. To maintain your faith in the face of such persecution is beyond tough. I faced ridicule and mocking when I became a Christian, mostly namecalling and insults, nothing to the degree our persecuted brothers and sisters have endured. Some came from my parents, some of it came from people I've known since childhood. The mocking continues today for me today. The way to look at it is this, you can have all the money, fame, prestige, possession, friends or family in the world but if you don't have your faith, none of those things matter. Long after all the others have gone, that, in reality, is all there is left.
So the question we must ask ourselves is; "What would we do for love?"
Blessings,
Liz Ciccone
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