Wuv, twu wuv ...

So I think some of my all-time favorite love quotes come from movies. Some are sweet, some are deep, most are comical ... but they speak so accurately to most any situation. I love all the one liners in Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally and all the classics. I was flipping through the channels and saw a movie I hadn't seen in a very long time - First Knight. So I turned it on for "background noise" while I worked on some edits and writing. But one quote caught my attention; so I rewound it to hear it again (and froze the TV in the process - broken DVRs are the best - but it was totally worth it). King Arthur (Sean Connery) and Lancelot (Richard Gere) were having a conversation after Lancelot has performed a great feat:

King Arthur: You care nothing for yourself. No wealth, no home, no goal, just the passionate spirit that drives you on.God uses people like you.Because your heart is open, you give all of yourself.

Lancelot: If you knew me better, you wouldn't say such things. 

King Arthur: I take the good with the bad. I can't love people in slices.

Later in the movie this would be put to the test, but it really got me thinking. Often we find people who, from their actions, appear to be totally worthy of love and all good things; just as often, we might find someone who is in a foul mood or is always angry and feel that they aren't as deserving of love and have "something else coming to them." But there are numerous examples in the Bible of what happens when people are quick to judge, in addition to Scriptures cautioning about doing that very thing. I've thought on more than one occasion that the only reason the Bible would repeat that warning/caution/admonition is because clearly it's going to be something we will struggle with - on a frequent basis.

So when it comes down to it, if we made a statement like King Arthur "I take the good with the bad; I can't love people in slices," how accurate would that be? Is that something we are truly capable of doing? I would love to say "Absolutely! Yes!!!" But when the time comes that this is actually required of me, wow ... how much harder it seems! But that is the goal that I'm going to begin aiming for ... to love someone wholly - not in slices. To love all of them - not for what they do, or for what I see, but for who they are - and for who they want and desire to be! When someone looks at me, I want them to see past my attitude and see that my true desire is to be happy and joyful and patient and kind and gracious and loving and forgiving and helpful and ... etc. So my new goal is to look deep enough to see the same in others; and in doing so, learn what true love really is and become a more loving - and loved - person because of it!