Bacon, Eggs, Ice Cream and Love

An elderly couple was beginning to forget little things around the house. They were afraid that this could be dangerous, as one of them may forget to turn off the stove and thus cause a fire.
So, they decided to go see their physician to get some help. Their physician told them that many people their age find it useful to write themselves little notes as reminders.
The couple thought this sounded wonderful, and left the doctor’s office very pleased with the advice. When they got home, the wife said, “Dear, will you please go to the kitchen and get me a dish of ice cream? And why don’t you write that down so you won’t forget?
“Nonsense,” said the husband, “I can remember a dish of ice cream.” “Well,” said the wife, “I’d also like some strawberries on it. You better write that down, because I know you’ll forget.”
“Don’t be silly,” replied the husband. “You want a dish of ice cream and some strawberries. I can remember that.”
“OK, dear, but I’d like you to put some whipped cream on top. Now you’d really better write it down,” said the wife. “Come now, my memory’s not all that bad,” said the husband.
“No problem—a dish of ice cream with strawberries and whipped cream.”
With that, the husband shut the kitchen door behind him. He emerged from the kitchen about 15 minutes later with a plate of bacon and eggs. The wife took one look at the plate, glanced up at her husband and said, “I knew you wouldn’t get it right—where’s the toast?”
Perhaps the most familiar verse in the entire Bible is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” For God so loved that it resulted in Him giving. For God so loved, He sacrificed His very Self; holding nothing of worth back from us. For God so loved, He made the first move, not waiting first to see how we would respond. For God so loved that He never worried about what that love would do to His reputation. God actually made us of more importance than Himself, and only He could have pulled that off.
We human beings, on the other hand, are always worried that we are going to give too much, or be taken advantage of or not be given back at the very least an equal share of what we have invested.
We always seem to have our self-interest guarded to the point that it can’t help but mess with any attention we may pay another. Could it be that even at our worst, we still believe that we are the best? And might this preoccupation with our own importance actually devalue the very others we claim to love?
Pride is the killer of love. It won’t allow ourselves to get out of our own way so that we may genuinely give of our very best to another.
When we hold on to the notion that we are owed something by someone, we only sabotage the very relationships we claim matter so much. God’s love has no pride.
He gave with no strings attached. He acted with no concern for His own reputation. Knowing who He was, He was able to freely do what He did. And nothing and no one could change the intensity and immensity of it being love undefiled by selfish motives.                         
What if we trusted God to the point that we too could act in a manner of absolute self-sacrifice? What if love could be offered freely without knowing an end? No one forced God to do what He did. He did it whether we receive it or not.
We can choose to joyfully open our lives to the Lord and trust Him, and walk together with Him, or we can lock the front door of our soul and throw away the key. Our behavior doesn’t change the flavor of Divine Love.
What if I began to live like others mattered more than me? What if I loved in such the way that my ego played no part in the equation? What if I treated others not as I wanted to be treated, but only as God has dealt with me? What if love wasn’t such a contest?
What if relationship wasn’t driven by, “What’s in it for me?” What did God really get for loving us? Think on that one for a while and see if it ever makes sense. Or maybe that’s just it. Love is not about making sense.
It is about giving your absolute best even in your absolute worst. Maybe your best is serving me bacon and eggs instead of ice cream. Maybe the treat is that someone cares enough to serve me at all. Maybe this isn’t about keeping score.
Maybe it is more about simply living to giving. God so loved and He gave. It doesn’t get better than that. 
ED. NOTE: The author is the senior pastor of The Lighthouse Church, 1248 Route 9 South, Court House.