{"id":4107,"date":"2019-02-12T16:29:58","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T21:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gnhuu.org\/?p=4107"},"modified":"2019-02-17T14:23:14","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17T19:23:14","slug":"sunday-february-17-2019-the-power-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/2019\/02\/12\/sunday-february-17-2019-the-power-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday, February 17, 2019, &#8220;The Power of Love&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Please click here to listen to the message.  If you do, see the video link below when it is introduced.  You may also simply read the message below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"http:\/\/gnhuu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/GNH-Service-2019-Feb-17.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many of us know the story of William Shakespeare\u2019s Romeo and Juliet.&nbsp; It may be the most famous story ever written about the power of love.&nbsp; I won\u2019t describe it in lot of detail, but it tells of a teenage guy and a teenage girl who are each from families that hate one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tRomeo is persuaded by friends to attend a dance party so that he can meet a girl he really likes.&nbsp; This party is held by the family that hates Romeo\u2019s family &#8211; but he decides to go anyway hoping the girl he likes is there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tAt the dance, he doesn\u2019t meet that girl, but sees instead Juliet &#8211; who is a member of the hated family.&nbsp; Romeo and Juliet, who meet for the first time, are immediately smitten.&nbsp; They talk, laugh and flirt.&nbsp; A cousin of Juliet sees Romeo, however, and realizes he\u2019s from the hated family.&nbsp; He attacks Romeo and throws him out of the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tBut Romeo is so taken with Juliet that he sneaks back into her yard hoping to see her again.&nbsp; He sees her on an upstairs balcony and she\u2019s very happy.&nbsp; She\u2019s smiling, talking to herself, and saying how much she loves Romeo.&nbsp; She doesn\u2019t care that he\u2019s from the hated family.&nbsp; She will love him anyway and she pledges to be with him no matter what.&nbsp; Hearing her say these things, Romeo tells Juliet he loves her and asks her to marry him.&nbsp; She says yes and the two get married the next day by a sympathetic Minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tJuliet\u2019s cousin meanwhile challenges Romeo to a fight.&nbsp; Even though he didn\u2019t want to fight this guy, Romeo ends up killing him.&nbsp; When Juliet\u2019s father hears this, he tells the police to make Romeo leave the city forever.&nbsp; The father also orders Juliet to marry another guy.&nbsp; Juliet runs away and asks the Minister what to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tThe Minister gives Juliet a sleeping pill to take just before she is marry the other guy.&nbsp; She\u2019ll then appear as if she\u2019s dead &#8211; so her dad can\u2019t force her to get married.&nbsp; She takes the pill and falls into a deep sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tRomeo, like everyone else, doesn\u2019t know she\u2019d only taken a sleeping pill.&nbsp; He thinks that she\u2019s dead.&nbsp; Romeo is so upset the girl of his dreams has died that he decides to kill himself too.&nbsp; He drinks poison and dies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tWhen Juliet wakes up, she sees that Romeo is dead.&nbsp; She is so upset she kills herself with a sword!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tThe story ends when the two families find Romeo and Juliet dead and learn that they had secretly gotten married.&nbsp; The families decide to stop fighting and forgive each other &#8211; in honor of the two lovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tMy telling of the story leaves out most of the romantic parts.&nbsp; Even though it\u2019s a great story that people have enjoyed for four hundred years, &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">it\u2019s not very realistic.&nbsp; Do people really fall so passionately in love and get <strong>married<\/strong> in only one day?&nbsp; I don\u2019t think so.&nbsp; What Romeo and Juliet felt was powerful, but it wasn\u2019t reasonable, and it wasn\u2019t yet real love.&nbsp; I think they were instead <strong><em>infatuated<\/em><\/strong> with each other.&nbsp; Like many of us have experienced, they first saw each and really liked what they saw.&nbsp; They were physically attracted to one another.&nbsp; They flirted and laughed, but it wasn\u2019t true love they felt.&nbsp; They felt infatuation &#8211; which is mostly a feeling of attraction to a person\u2019s looks, status or wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tReal love doesn\u2019t happen overnight.&nbsp; Real love wants to spend lots of time getting to know the other person.&nbsp; Real love comes from calmly thinking about her or him &#8211; their personality and their character.&nbsp; Real love understands the flaws in the other one, but loves them anyway.&nbsp; Real love makes you feel peaceful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tInfatuation, on the other hand, makes you feel like you\u2019re drunk.&nbsp; Infatuation is not rational.&nbsp; It wrongly thinks the other person is totally perfect without giving much thought to that.&nbsp; Infatuation happens very quickly and ends pretty fast too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tMost of us think about somebody we first like with a combination of being cool and being an idiot at the same time.&nbsp; We use our intelligence but our attractions distract us.&nbsp; In many ways, our brain is divided when it comes to falling in love with someone &#8211; one brain side thinks, the other side doesn\u2019t think &#8211; it only feels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tWatch with me now what I think is a very funny video about love and our divided brains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"CGI Animated Short Film HD &quot;Brain Divided &quot; by Josiah Haworth, Joon Shik &amp; Joon Soo | CGMeetup\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JvWcyhSUNN4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tThat\u2019s a great video to help us think about the power of fake love &#8211; or&nbsp; what I call infatuation &#8211; versus the power of real love that thinks.&nbsp; The guy\u2019s brain is torn between wanting to do all the nice things that build real love.&nbsp; But his hormones, his attraction, and his infatuation with the girl take over. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tThe video also gets at what John Legend wrote in his song \u201cAll of Me\u201d.&nbsp; Legend has a divided brain for the person he wrote the song about.&nbsp; His head is spinning, he\u2019s on a magical mystery ride, he\u2019s dizzy, his head\u2019s under water, and he does not know what hit him.&nbsp; He\u2019s <strong><em>very<\/em><\/strong> attracted to someone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tBut he\u2019s also trying his best to think clearly.&nbsp; He\u2019s attracted to her curves &#8211; or her looks.&nbsp; But he also loves her edges &#8211; the things about her that aren\u2019t perfect even though, as he sings, he loves her imperfections.&nbsp; When we really love someone, we love all of them &#8211; the good and the not so good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tWhat I hope we each do &#8211; especially you young people &#8211; is that we think about the difference between infatuation and real love.&nbsp; We would not be human if we do not feel a wonderful high when we are first attracted to someone.&nbsp; But that\u2019s not love.&nbsp; It might eventually become real love &#8211; but only with time and patience spent listening to and getting to know the other person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tI\u2019ve talked in my messages this February about love.&nbsp; Two weeks ago I talked about unconditional love.&nbsp; Don\u2019t judge someone you love.&nbsp; Forgive them when they do something that hurts you.&nbsp; Love them just the way they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tLast week I talked about loving yourself.&nbsp; And I quoted Ru Paul, the famous drag queen, who tells people, \u201cIf you can\u2019t love yourself, how the hell are you going to love somebody else?\u201d&nbsp; We shouldn\u2019t judge ourselves too harshly and should do, instead, what Buddhists say: be gentle with ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tFor today, I hope you will think about what real romantic love is.&nbsp; Infatuation is all about <strong><em>right now<\/em><\/strong>.&nbsp; I\u2019m attracted to you and I want to make out with you now!&nbsp; That is not love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tReal love is all about staying power.&nbsp; It wants to be together for many, many years.&nbsp; It is patient, gentle and plans for a future together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tAnd so, three ideas I have for us this February month of love:&nbsp; 1) Love and serve other people no matter what they do or don\u2019t do.&nbsp; 2) Love and accept yourself.&nbsp; And, 3) when you feel like you\u2019re attracted to someone, enjoy that feeling, but know it isn\u2019t love.&nbsp; Instead, stop, think, and appreciate them for their character, their personality, and the possibility of spending time getting to know her or him\u2026..and only <strong><em>then<\/em><\/strong> falling into real love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tPeace to each of you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved Please click here to listen to the message. If you do, see the video link below when it is introduced. You may also simply read the message below. Many of us know the story of William Shakespeare\u2019s Romeo and Juliet.&nbsp; It may [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4107"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4113,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4107\/revisions\/4113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}