One of the best but most often overlooked writings of C.S. Lewis is The Four Loves. In this work Lewis explores four streams of love, framing each by using ancient Greek keywords: storge (affection), philia (friendship), eros (romantic love), and agape (charity).
     How these forms of love are expressed are as different as what they represent…love that bonds a family, love that draws us to one another as friends, love that is passionate in being committed to one special person, and love that helps us see beyond ourselves and creates the underpinning for all the other expressions of love.  
     Expressing and receiving agape love is the closest we as humans can get to sharing in the Divine love God has for us. It is our attempt to offer selfless, unconditional love that more often comes from our pets to us as it does from us to others.
     My wife April is out of town this week, spending time with her mother on a trip to north Georgia viewing the beauty of fall foliage. Thus, my two sons and I get the full attention of our miniature schnauzer, Penny. Penny and April have a special bond. We don’t notice it as much when April is home, but when she goes away for a few days it takes all three of us to give Penny the attention she craves from the one person she experiences love from the most.  
 Penny

      I will admit that when Penny greets me at the door, comes and sits at my feet when I am on the computer, or next to me on the sofa, or just looks at me with those big brown eyes, I get a glimpse of the canine version of agape love. I have heard it said that a human may have many pets during their life, but a pet may have only one human during its life. What an honor it is to be that human!
     There is a meme or two I’ve seen that proclaims, “I wish I could find someone who loves me like my dog loves me.” This simply expresses a longing for agape love. In this divided, cold culture in which we live, the embers of agape love need to be stoked even more than usual for us to experience them. What can help reignite the warmth of agape love is to recommit ourselves to strengthening our relationship with God, who is the only true source of it.
     In The Four Loves, Lewis warns against idolizing storge, philia, or eros, and taking agape love for granted. We cannot love earthly things too much in proportion to our love for God. One reason the give and take relationship with a loyal pet is so powerful is because we are willing to be open and vulnerable when receiving and offering it. The other forms of love Lewis examines will each cause us to close off some part of ourselves for various reasons…ego, defensiveness, selfishness, or because we compare ourselves to others and feel we may not measure up. In true agape love those walls come down, a relationship no longer feels transactional, and thus our defenses also come down.
     One of Lewis’ concluding points says, “In God there is no hunger that needs to be filled, only plenteousness that desires to give.” This reminded me of a song by the late Rev. Dr. John Kilzer, a United Methodist pastor, a star basketball player, a recovering addict, a well-versed theologian, a gifted singer and songwriter, and an 80’s MTV era-rocker, wrote and performed a song called, “Dog’s World”. The chorus proclaims, “It’s a dog’s world, it’s a dog’s world, it’s a dog’s world, times are ruff, ruff, ruff.” (If you’d like to listen to it click HERE)
     Perhaps in this season of giving and gratitude, we can seek ways to offer agape love to those who are in need through non-transactional, selfless, and randomly divine acts of kindness. In doing so, our relationships with God and neighbor become the catalyst for our ability to love one another as God, and our dog, loves us…for what is a dog, but God spelled backwards?

Ruff, Ruff…


The Reverend Dr. David Weatherly
President/CEO