Love Story
Erich Segal, author of Love Story, the bestselling novel and award winning film about doomed love, died last Sunday. The famous last line: ‘love means never having to say you’re sorry’ has poisoned countless romances, marriages and families.
Whatever love means, saying sorry is a huge part of it. In fact if you have never said sorry, I would say you have never loved.
Children often go through a stage in which they simply don’t seem to understand that when they behave badly, they must show genuine remorse. And that can carry over into adulthood. Many find it so hard to face up to the fact that they may have done something wrong, or hurt another.
Elizabeth and Darcy in Pride and Prejudice cannot find happiness in love until they have said sorry to each other. The turning point in Beauty and the Beast comes when the huge beast mumbles ‘sorry’ to Belle.
We often live in 3D mode: Deny, Defend, Defer. We deny that we do wrong, we defend our wrong actions and we defer saying sorry.
Admitting our faults and failings, saying sorry and asking for forgiveness is at the heart of Jesus’ teaching, and is the doorway to freedom and love.
The other side of the coin is forgiveness, our topic for this morning.
David Thatcher
Add comment January 26th, 2010