First Baptist Church of Herndon

Too Much Love?

Linda Soller | Feb 13, 2023

This is the perfect week to ponder if there can ever be too much love. A few situations come to mind. There is obsessive love as in the hovering parent or spouse who fears losing someone’s love or even sharing it. They nearly smother the person with love and attention. There is too much love that creates a stalker, although I don’t know if I would even consider that a love situation. But generally speaking, we want to believe there is always room for more love. Certainly, if you walk into most stores from mid-January through this week you will notice hearts everywhere. Not to worry, all the pink and red will disappear soon. Hope you like kelly green!

What about self-love? We must value and love ourselves if we are going to make good decisions in life. I happen to think you must learn to love yourself to be happy. This love helps you to take care of yourself, keep healthy, and avoid danger. Loving yourself does not equal feeling perfect or superior. And so, on the negative side there is the loving yourself that shadows your judgement, leads you to make bad choices, keeps you from seeing the impact of your actions on those around you. This kind of excessive love of self might be narcissism if it focuses on your appearance. It may also be called selfishness if it focuses on doing and getting what you want. I know some selfish people who don’t seem to realize they are acting selfishly and others who know full well what they are doing. Either way we often think of these people as spoiled.

Sometimes these spoiled, narcissistic, selfish people say or do hurtful things. They are reluctant to deny themselves what they want regardless of the impact on others. So, can there be too much love? I guess I would say yes in some cases. Does that mean we stopping preaching love your neighbor? My answer is an emphatic no. The world is always in need of more love. Our job is to be sure it’s directed in the right way, to those in need, to those who mourn, and those who are lost. 

Be the love in the world  : )   Linda