what's love got to do with it: a special valentine's day blog

Valentine's Day is dumb. I've never liked it. Now, I can imagine you already rolling your eyes thinking, "Kevin, it's because you're single. You've been single on Valentine's Day for, like, 15 years." Before you jump to judgement, keep reading. This entry may just go a little different direction then you're expecting.
First of all, it's only been around 11 years since I've had a "valentine." Ballpark. Who's counting? Second of all, being single has nothing to do with my hatred for this "holiday."
Only two reasons exist in my mind and these two reasons are all I require to make my assessment.

Reason #1 - Valentine's Day was made from nothing. NOTHING. I'm not saying it has no purpose. I'm saying the creation of the holiday itself apparently came completely out of left field.
The holiday was named after a St. Valentine. The only factual evidence we have of St. Valentine that has some tie to this holiday we celebrate today is the Catholic Encyclopedia talks of a St. Valentine who's anniversary (not sure what anniversary this is referring to) was dated on Februrary 14. Cute, huh? Well, he was martyred in Africa with a bunch of other dudes. Eesh, not so cute. The date is the ONLY thing that ties this guy to Valentine's Day.
So, how in the world did we come up with this holiday? More info on our saint thanks to Wikipedia.
St Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing the blind daughter of his jailer.
The above was information taken from 'The Golden Legend,' which was a collection of medieval manuscripts on a study of the saints written around 1260. Phew. OK, appreciate the info but still not making a connection to V-Day. Here's what follows that story on Wikipedia.
Since 'The Golden Legend' still provided no connections whatsoever with sentimental love, appropriate lore has been embroidered in modern times to portray Valentine as a priest who refused an unattested law attributed to Roman Emperor Claudius II, allegedly ordering that young men remain single. The Emperor supposedly did this to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. The priest Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men. When Claudius found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail.
Spectacular. So, someone "embroidered lore." I could be missing something, but that sounds of fancy way to say, "we totally made it up."
It gets WAY better, though. Check this out.
On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he would have written the first "valentine" card himself, addressed to a young girl variously identified as his beloved, as the jailer's daughter whom he had befriended and healed, or both. It was a note that read "From your Valentine."
This little gem posted above was further "lore" on the St. Valentine story submitted by American Greetings. This didn't mean a lot to me, so Wikipedia, take 'er away!
American Greetings is....
is the world's largest publicly-traded greeting card company.
Great, so we can put that to rest. I think we close the book on reason #1.

Reason #2. It's like Christmas, but worse. Whoa! Wait, what??
What is the purpose of Valentine's Day? If you were asked this question the simplest way possible, what would you say? I would have to say something like, "it's a day when you show love to those that love you."
OK, now, how would explain the purpose of Christmas in a simple sentence. If your a Christian, you'll say, "to celebrate the birth of Christ." Most non-Christians will say, "when I get together with those I love and exchange gifts." Now that I think about it, I would have to say Christmas for non-Christians is essentially Valentine's Day part 2, but you purchase more gifts typically. I don't think that would be horribly off base to say. This probably sounds like I'm slamming non-Christians, but if you don't believe Christ was born and died for your sins, why are you celebrating the holiday? To love those that love you. I feel can I move on again now that we're all back on the same team.
Are you starting to catch where I'm going with this? Why in the world do we need a holiday to remind us to show love to the people we love? A holiday to get together with those we love and give them a gift as a token of love? A holiday to remind us to love God and thank him for the birth of the Savior of humanity?
I guess I can understand the debate that's brewing. Is one day better than no days? Absolutely. But how sad is it for many people, it really is just one day. If we truly understand what love is and have people we do love in our lives, what is one day of giving a gift really showing that? Not that it has to be a gift, but how much more meaningful is it to get something out of the blue. How awesome of a feeling would it be to receive a few roses at work on July 16th rather than on the day you're "supposed to?"
Sorry, kind of got carried away from my closing point. Reason #2. There ya go.

I thought I would share this since it's rather fitting (and incredibly timely). In our men's group we are reading a book called, 'Becoming a Contagious Christian.' The chapter I'm reading for this week is entitled "The Pull of Compassion."
Here's what I read tonight that, to me, reaffirms my reason #2.
When action-oriented compassion is absent, it's a telltale sign that something's spiritually amiss. Whether the problem is with the organization or the individual, uncaring Christianity does not attract inquirers to into it's fold. But a clear and consistent demonstration of Christlike love is a powerful magnet pulls people towards Him.
Obviously, this is a little out of context from what I'm talking about as this is about bringing nonbelievers to Christ, but I hope you can see the similarities. "A clear and consistent demonstration of love is a powerful magnent." I want that magnent! Don't you?
I just wanted to encourage everyone to make the meaning of holidays last more than just a day. That's super cheesy I know, but there really isn't any other way to say it. If you love somebody, tell them. Show them. You don't need to spend $25 for a dozen roses because it's what your supposed to do on this particular day. Do it "out of season"...just because you can and, more importantly, because you want to. I can almost guarantee it'll be more meaningful.
Happy Valentine's Day.