Choir Notes

One of the Great Secrets
From Music and the Spoken Word
Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell . Program 4125

Of all that we could give to others, nothing is so meaningful, even essential, as love.

A young man began to understand this while doing service at an orphanage far away from home. The young man, along with a corps of volunteers, worked hard to raise money and provide the orphans with a playground, mattresses, shoes, and food.

When he arrived at the orphanage to deliver the donations, the children beamed with excitement. They were grateful for the generous gifts, but the young man could see that more than anything, the little orphans wanted to be loved. And they didn’t wait for an invitation. They ran to him, sat on his lap, and lifted his arms over their shoulders—they literally put his arms around them, showing him how much they wanted to be hugged. The young man couldn’t help but realize that of all the gifts he’s been given, of all the gifts he could give away, nothing compares with love.

In time and with experience we can discover the truth that the more we love others, the more love we have to share. Learning to love is life’s greatest labor and deepest joy. C. S. Lewis advised: “Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”1

In other words, we don’t need to measure love as if it were in short supply. We need not reserve our love only for those we’re comfortable with or those who have shown love to us. Be generous with your love, and you’ll never run out of it. Love regenerates itself—it grows by giving.

One of the great secrets of life is really no secret at all: Wherever one person is trying to be good and kind—that’s where love always is.

1 Mere Christianity (1952), 101.