What does Valentine's Day have to do with whether we're fans or followers of Jesus?  Maybe nothing, maybe everything!  After all, Valentine's Day is dedicated to expressing our devotion to our true love.  While Valentine's Day typically focuses on our primary romantic interest, the concept of expressing the depth of our love to our one and only gets us a lot closer to the meaning of being a follower, than of being a fan.

The challenge is the verse we read in worship on Sunday:  “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26 NLT  How are we supposed to express our devotion to our wife or husband, boyfriend or girlfriend, if loving Jesus means "hating" them?  Well, as I said in worship on Sunday, Jesus was using hyperbole.  He was telling us that by comparison our relationships with everyone else would look like hate, when compared with our love for Him.  Wow!  That's a lot of love for Jesus, isn't it?

I'm not trying to minimize the importance of Valentine's Day for expressing our love for our "one and only," I'm just saying that our "one and only" -- in my case Nancy -- is still secondary to Jesus.  In that sense, He's our One and only and our spouses, children, parents and other loved ones follow after. 

So, where are you on the scale of Jesus is FIRST, and everyone else is a somewhat distant second?  Is He truly first, or is He equal with someone else in your life, or even behind someone?  That's a tough question, since we can actually see, hear and touch our spouses, or parents, or children, and Jesus' presence is spiritual--which sometimes feels intangible.  My prayer for this Valentine's Day is that each of us will celebrate the people in our lives whom we love, while giving our hearts whole-heartedly to Jesus.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Let's pray:  Heavenly Father, thank You for being worthy of our fullest love and care.  Fill us with Your Holy Spirit that we may love You with all our hearts, soul, minds and strength, and show our love for our "sweethearts" in ways that honor them and You!  This we pray in Jesus' name.  Amen.