Love is not an Emergency

I was thinking this morning... abut the timeliness of love demonstration. While observing my week days unwinding routine, watching Tinsel on TV, Serena, the run away wife of Chief was expressing her concern to Brenda Mensah, about her partner, Ike moving too fast and wanting to take her for a family function. While Brenda advised her to take it slowly, she concluded thus, 'I may not be an expert in relationships, but one thing I have learnt is that love is not an emergency.' That 'love is not an emergency,' struck a cord in me.

 

If love is truly not an emergency, then why does the heart skip a beat when one is in love? I remember in 2001 when I first saw this young damsel who later became my wife, I made every move possible to engage and marry her as soon as possible, because as far as I am concerned, it was a 'Marital Emergency.' How can they say love is not an emergency?

 

As I protested, something in me tells me to calm down and reason. As I did grudgingly, I discovered that it is like two sides of a coin. If you are on the verge of losing your loved one, love will definitely be an emergency, but if your loved one 'falls your hand,' you are in no hurry to strike. Love, at this point will not be an emergency. But how can love not be an emergency? I kept wondering. I recalled the several News stories of people committing suicide  because they were dumped by those they loved and yet someone is telling me that love is not an emergency. Surely, love in this instance is a 'Medical Emergency.'

 

As my mind continued inditing this view that love is an emergency, I imagined the behavior of a typical Nigerian politician and Civil servants placed before the State coffers. They are like dogs on heat, with an urgent need to loot. The budget for four years is stolen in a  few months. Their love for money is definitely a 'Financial Emergency.'

 

When I considered this in the complex Nigeria setting, my thinking got a bit fuzzy. Think about it. Just before the last election, the then opposition, APC, needed the love of Nigerians. They were urgent in making Nigerians see why the change was imperative. To most people, the love was an emergency. They did not only preach love, they promised marriage and a life of bliss thereafter. There was a sense of urgency in their love demonstration. Shortly after we gave them our hearts, they went to sleep. It took months to appoint Ministers and get the economy to work. While we kept reminding them that love is an emergency, they gave us a convincing response, when in spite of the mass killings by marauding herdsmen, there was a near absence or at best a lack luster response to the killings. At this point I was convinced that love is not a 'Political Emergency.'

 

On the surface, that love is not an emergency seems like the flip side of 'Love is patient,' but in reality, it is like the plant, Impatiens capensis (Spotted touch-me-not). The fruit of this plant is a thin pod about 1 inch long that pops open at the slightest touch, throwing seeds in all directions. Love could or could not be an emergency depending on the seed it throws at you when you touch the subject. What matters is, in every aspect of your life, according to 1st Cor 16:14, 'Do everything in love.'

Happy Sunday.

....Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey