LOVE

Other than music, I'm not much of an art-buff. I enjoy reading, I like poetry, and can observe paintings. There are few physical pieces that move me as much as music does. But, there are a few exceptions, and I want to talk about one of them. There's a popular piece of art on the street corner of 55th St and 6th Ave in New York City. I'm sure you've seen it before. LOVE. That's it. The letters L and O (which is slanted) over the letters V and E. The face of the letters are red and the silhouette is blue. It's nothing fancy, colorful, or significant. Ring any bells? Here's a pic:






Pretty simple right? For something so obvious and artistically relevant, it carries the weight of a city on its shoulders. Though just a four-letter word, LOVE packs a strong meaning, and is simple to say, do, and experience. Right?
"What have I learned about love? It's a dangerous commodity, froth will peril". That's a quote from the artist, Robert Indiana, who originally created the concept for the cover of a Christmas Card for the Museum of Modern Art in 1964. It then became a popular (and now collectable) postage stamp 9 years later. In 1966, Indiana made a steel sculpture of it and was displayed in the Museum of Modern Art for many years before being moved out onto the corner of 55th and 6. As you can see from the picture, it stands alone as an obvious reminder to the millions of New Yorkers and tourists who walk by it each year to simply love.

Has it worked? Probably not. We live in a world that seems to do the complete opposite as fine wine; it gets worse with age. Sitting in the Christian box for a moment, I hear about love all the time. With all the sermons, books, music, and special speakers I hear over the course of a year, you'd think that I'd be learning to love better, love more, and love differently. I'm not the one to judge whether that's true or not, but at least I have some sort of self-awareness of it. Sitting in the secular box for a moment, I see more war, killing, lust, and immoral opportunity every time I turn on the TV. When I sit in my lunch room at work every day, CBC news is on (it's the only channel we get) and all I see if how many have been killed in this Eastern country, what political party is slamming the other, and what Pres Obama is doing to save the universe today. (side note: Obama, by the way, had his own version of the LOVE statue created by Indiana to raise money for his campaign which replaced the word "LOVE" with "HOPE").

We're bombarded with pleas to love more. Love each other, love our neighbor, and love our enemies. Love others despite race, religion, sex, political affiliation, and moral belief. Why is it so hard for us to do? Can something as small as buying a hamburger for an ungrateful homeless man be considered love? Can doing the dishes for our spouse be considered love? Can offering hugs to complete strangers be love? Yes, it can. But what else is LOVE and why does Indiana himself call love a "dangerous commodity"? And where do find our example of what love is?

God is Love. And Jesus ended up being the "dangerous commodity" that Indiana spoke about. Jesus' death became the "peril" of what love brings. He was the ultimate sacrifice of love. Maybe you don't believe in God or Jesus. That's fine. But, even the simple concept of God's love is something amazing. I can't imagine giving up my son, Noah, to die for any one human being, let alone all of human race. Regardless, the most fruitful example of love is found in Jesus. His care, love, compassion, and encouragement for the poor, needy, helpless, and disenfranchised is beyond any other religious, literary, fictional, or physical example we've even been confronted with. Bono has a great quote in an interview he did with Bill Hybels where he says, "You either have to believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God or believe that he was a complete nutcase. Jesus was either Charles Manson... an absolute nutcase or, in my opinion, who He said He was."

To push these comments a little further, world-renown preacher/speaker/spiritual advisor, Tony Campolo made an appearance on "The Hour" one night and said about Bono, "Here is a guy who is a rock singer who has done more to articulate what Christianity is really about than most of we preachers. In fact, he says to be Christian is to commit to the poor and to the oppressed." Later on in that same interview, Campolo talks a bit about love and how it's portrayed in society (using Luke 25 as his basis): "I (God) am not up in the sky somewhere. I'm waiting to be loved in people who hurt. As you relate to people who are hurt, you relate to me. There is no Christianity that does not tie (Christians) up with the poor and oppressed of the world".

Jesus shows this example of love many times in the scriptures. "The least of these..." so-to-speak. But not only Jesus' example of love through who He is, but God's example of love my simply sending His son down from Heaven into a world that needed love more desperately than ever. Jesus was God's 55th & 6th sculpture. He was the purest form of love to give us, yet "God so loved" that he "gave". We were the poor and disenfranchised until God sent a love to real and pure we didn't have to be reminded; just shown what real love meant, what real love felt like.

Still, though, why do we need a simple structure of steel to remind us to love? A simple word and simple piece of art is all we have left as a physical reminder of God's gift to us. The world is denouncing Christ, taking Him out of our schools, and find every way to find truth without Jesus. I don't believe that's possible. I realize I've asked a lot of questions in this blog without answers, but I leave it up to you to truly seek what true love is; find it so powerfully that you don't need anyone or anything to remind you of it. Having Christ is the ultimate expression of love and by giving, expressing, displaying, and showing love we can make this world better. Of course, that doesn't mean we need to stop making art about it; we just need to make sure that it points to the most fantastic, unreal, and purest example of it. Jesus. LOVE.

"Music is my first love. To wake up early in the morning with a melody in my head is a great gift."
- Bono