Nuggets of Truth

There's a verse somewhere in the Bible that talks about truth being able to be found anywhere, meaning that truth is not limited to being exposed from behind the pulpit; that God can use anything and anyone to convey truth. Last night, He used a television show on the CW to speak truth right at me. Allow me to explain.

One Tree Hill. To most everyone else who watched that show last night, it was nothing more than an hour-long dramatic television show. I must admit, the new twist on the show since last season has completely sucked me back into watching every week. For those of you that don't watch, last year they had all graduated from high school and were off to college or into the real world. I wondered how they were going to make these "kids" look like they were recent high school graduates when they already looked like they had graduated from college. Then someone had the brilliant idea to simply fast forward all of their lives 4 years. Brilliant! The show is better than ever and full of four years worth of drama, which we've never seen. I love it.

In last nights episode, Peyton Sawyer was professing her love to her best friend and ex-boyfriend, Lucas Scott who had recently proposed to his current girlfriend. Now a little over a year ago Lucas had proposed to Peyton, but she had asked him to wait til both of them had had a little more time to pursue their careers. Last night, she realized how wrong she had been in her response and was feeling unimaginable regret. After she told Lucas how she felt and how wrong she had been, he walked away from her and went back to his then-girlfriend, Lindsay. Obviously Peyton was heartbroken and trying desperately to figure out what to do now. She walks to the cemetary where her mother is buried and sits down in front of the the grave, with tears streaming, and begs her mother to speak to her somehow and tell her what to do. (I teared up at this point) Obviously she gets no audible response, but looks up to see a leaf fall from a nearby tree and drift to the grave of Lucas's Uncle Keith. It's then that she knows exactly what she has to do.

Now, I know the fact that I can recount this whole episode fully opens me to ridicule, but I think I have to paint the picture for everyone else to feel the weight of the truth-speaking moment that follows.

So, Peyton and Lucas. They've been best friends since the day Lucas moved to town eight years ago. They've been together on and off since then, never really getting the timing right, culminating in Lucas's rejected marriage proposal. And now somehow, Peyton has got to let go of the man that she has always loved. (Gah! Doesn't that just make you ache! And yes, I know these are fictional characters!) So, Peyton leaves the cemetary and goes to Lucas and has this one, final conversation about "everything"......

"I love you, Luke! I think I have since the day we met. But today it struck me that the greatest act of love is sacrifice. That's what Keith did for your mom. He denied his feelings for her all those years so that he could be a good friend to her. And as much as it's gonna suck, I'm willing to do that for you. If that will make you truly happy then I'll do it, because I want you to be happy more than anything in the world!"

"the greatest act of love is sacrifice"

It didn't take a television show to show the love of Christ to me, but last night it took a television show to remind me of the love of Christ for me. It also took that same show to reaffirm to me that love is not self-serving. Love is self-sacrificing. Love means giving up what you want and need for someone else, giving up yourself for another. I want to show that kind of love to others and I want to be loved that way in return. After all, we've got the greatest possible example to learn from. Don't we?