In a previous post I contrasted three kinds of love, only one of which was worth anything to anyone. In this post, I will contrast two more kinds of love: being in love and loving someone.
I was singing along with Huey Lewis on the radio recently (suitably mumbling inappropriate lines, of course), when my eleven year old son piped up, “Believe what about love?”
Believe what, indeed? I had to think about that for a minute, before I finally answered, “I don’t know. I don’t think the singer knows either.” He kept singing, “Do you believe in love?” But never really specified what we’re supposed to believe about love. I started thinking about Lewis’ other songs and realized that he really might not know what he’s supposed to believe. He might not have a clue what love is, let alone what it can do. Here are the lyrics to another of his songs:
The Power of Love
by Huey Lewis and the News
The power of love
Is a curious thing.
Make one man weep.
Make another man sing.
Change your heart
To a little white dove.
More than a feeling.
That’s the power of love.
Tougher than diamonds
Rich like cream.
Stronger and harder
Than a bad girl’s dream.
Make a bad one good.
Make a wrong one right.
The power of love will
Keep you home at night.
You don’t need money,
It don’t take fame,
You don’t need no credit card
To ride this train.
It’s strong and it’s sudden
And it’s cruel sometimes,
But it might just save your life.
That’s the power of love.
That’s the power of love.
The first time you feel it
It might make you sad.
Next time you feel it
It might make you mad.
You’ll be glad baby
when you found
That’s the power of love.
It makes the world go round.
It don’t take money
It don’t take fame.
Don’t need no credit card
To ride this train.
It’s strong and it’s sudden,
And it’s cruel sometimes.
But it might just save your life.
They say that only love is fair
Yeah, but you don’t care.
But you’ll know what to do
When it gets hold of you,
And with a little help from above
You’ll feel the power of love.
You’ll feel the power of love.
Can you feel it?
Don’t take money.
Don’t take fame.
Don’t need no credit card
To ride this train.
Tougher than diamonds,
Stronger than steel.
You won’t feel nothing
‘Til you feel
Feel the power of love
Just feel the power of love.
That’s the power of love.
You feel the power of love
You feel the power of love
You feel the power of love
He says that love is powerful and strong and sudden, that you can’t buy it, and you can’t get it by being famous. You just feel it.
But feel what?
Well, the power, of course.
Oh, right. Of course.
Talk to the bones of Troy about the power of that kind of love.
In pop culture, love is only important because of how it makes you feel. “Being in love” means that you get warm fuzzy feelings. The whole aim of existence is to feel the power of love.
What a rotten, parasitic way to live.
Compare Lewis’ emoting to this song from the Seventy Sevens:
This Is the Way Love Is
by The Seventy Sevens
When I gave up,
You held up.
When I ran out,
You filled me up.
When I kept runnin’,
You kept up.
When I let you down,
You lifted me up.
This is the way love is.
When I couldn’t find the words,
You understood.
When I didn’t find the time,
You were in no hurry.
When I wouldn’t make ends meet,
You tacked them together.
When I cheated,
You kept to the rules.
This is the way love is.
This is the way love is.
Well, it’s a one-sided, double-minded
Mirror with no reflection.
When I was keepin’ it in,
You were givin’ out.
When I was losin’ out,
You’d let me come back.
When I was holdin’ back,
You were holdin’ on.
When I was losin’ my cool,
You were keepin’ your love warm.
This is the way love is.
This is the way love is.
Well, it’s a one-sided, double-minded
Mirror with no reflection.
2x
I kept it all to myself
Just like a miser
Holds onto his last dime.
When I closed up myself
Like a deperate man on a life line,
Well, I was bled dry
Wrapped up in my pride.
This is the way it is
When you’re on the wrong side.
This is the way love is.
This is the way love is.
Well, it’s a one-sided, double-minded
Mirror with no reflection.
3x
This is the way love is.
4x
In this vision, love is all about giving without getting, supporting without being supported. It’s about Yeshua and Mother Theresa and the woman who spends her free time at the nursing home and the man who spends every weekend ministering at the state prison.
Like I wrote before, there’s nothing wrong with being in love, with all the intensity of emotion that comes with infatuation. It’s great! I love it! But it’s not enough to make true love.
True love takes selflessness. I wish I had more of that kind of love to give.
The Seventy Sevens sing about the so-called “Power of Love” too: “I kept it all to myself just like a miser holds on to his last dime. When I closed up myself like a desperate man on a lifeline, well, I was bled dry, wrapped up in my pride.”
That’s the way it is when you’re on the wrong side, when you’re asking, “What can love do for me?”
