By Acting Like a Man in Love…

This has always been my most cherished scene in the movie Paris, Je T’aime and it finds its climax and fullest meaning at the words spoken by the narrator, “By acting like a man in love, he became a man in love again.”  This is a profound thought to me and finds application in many different areas of life, not least of course in relationships and marriage.  I’m reminded of John Piper’s book, When The Darkness Will Not Lift in which he ascribes as a remedy to a lack of spiritual joy the duty of, or the doing of, spiritually joyful things and thanking God for such a blessing – even if the person does not feel the joy or does not feel truly thankful.  In doing those things, the disheartened person is still working at the same desired conclusion, satisfaction in God – despite the fleeting, transient, and often times misleading, world of feelings.   It is the same with love, is it not?  Being married is certainly not about feeling what is felt on your marriage day or the short time after that great day, but about committing one’s self to the service of and continual loving of one other person – no matter how it feels.  And that’s why I enjoy this scene so much. It is, it seems to me, a good prescription to much of what we see today that passes for love (i.e. the NY Times “Vows” column about Carol Anne Riddell and John Partilla here).