This morning, on my professional FB profile, my status reads, “Today is a gift. How will you receive yours?” Sometimes, I’m guided to share inspirational thoughts or questions there so when that question came to me, I typed it out not really paying much heed to my own answer and forgetting all together that my FB friends would be able to see the question too. (I find me funny sometimes because I all too often forget that there are, indeed, people watching and listening!) So , when my phone started notifying me that people were replying – one person even asking what my answer was – I had an opportunity to look at how I wanted to receive my day.
In that moment, I got clear that I was in the process of receiving the gift of my day with “open eyes and arms, a tender heart and a curious mind.” All at once, the day felt more magical and full of possibilities! So amazing what happens when I switch my attention to details such as I did with that exercise!
A short while later, I was guided to change my radio station to a channel I haven’t listened to for quite some time. The song that was playing was in the first verse. The words captivated me, instantly:
If I speak with a silver tongue
Convince a crowd but don’t have love
I leave a bitter taste
With every word I say
I finished listening to the song, feeling my body strongly react to the lyrics with tears filling my eyes. I was then guided to search out the lyrics for the whole song. I read them and the tears began falling…
The Proof of Your Love
by For King & CountryIf I sing but don’t have love
I waste my breathe with every song
I bring, an empty voice
A hollow noiseIf I speak with a silver tongue
Convince a crowd but don’t have love
I leave a bitter taste
With every word I say(Chorus)
So let my life be the proof
The proof of Your love
Let my love look like You
And what You’re made of
How you lived, how You died
Love is sacrifice
So let my life be the proof
The proof of Your loveIf I give to a needy soul
But don’t have love then who is poor
It seems all the poverty
Is found in meChorus
Ooh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
When it’s all said and done
Ooh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
When we sing our final songOnly love remains
Only love remainsIf I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-7, The Message)
Chorus (lyrics courtesy of KLOVE and found at: klove.com)
Now, all that, in and of itself, was uplifting, inspiring and, pretty much, kicked my everloving, emotional ass. Then I was guided to watch the official video! Gasp!
I was not expecting the stark, harsh and dark images that I would find there. I wasn’t ready for the experience of witnessing a video that had been written, filmed and directed in such a way that I would relate to it with every one of my cells. I didn’t realize the emotional impact of the full message of this song and that its message is what I’ve experienced as I’ve strived to awaken myself through Love and inspire others to do the same.
I am profoundly moved by the gift of this day, in general, and then, specifically, for the series of experiences that were also gifts within this day. Each of the things I’ve written about here have reminded me of my purpose here – to change the world one person at a time, starting with myself, and then reaching out to others as I build a lasting Legacy of Love.
