Wednesday, August 3, 2011

I Know You Love Me, But Do You Like Me?

Michael Hyatt, former CEO and now Chairman of Thomas Nelson book publishers, has a good post about what kind of love keeps a marriage together. It's a guest post by counselor John Marshall, who was asked that question by a young man he was counseling whose marriage was ending.

For Christians, the standard answer has always been agape love—the selfless, sacrificial love where spouses love from the will; they choose to love as God chose to love the world in Christ.

But from the history of his own 30-plus years of marriage, Marshall gave a different answer. He thinks the kind of love that allows marriages to endure is philia, the Greek idea of brotherly love and affection. (Think Philadelphia, city of brotherly love—theoretically.) That's not to discount agape (selfless love) or eros (physical love), but without philia people don't remain friends in the long run. And that's what causes marriages to dissolve.

After painful years of thinking about this subject myself, I think Marshall is addressing a question that I've always put in these terms:

"I know you love me (and thanks for that), but do you like me?"

You can read Michael Hyatt's re-post of John Marshall's original post here. (Or on John Marshall's site here.)

(WK idea: What if significant others, instead of saying, "I love you," started saying, "I like you"? Just a thought.)

A Thousand Sit-ups and Push-ups a Day

Great WSJ article about golf legend Gary Player's fitness regimen. At age 75, he does a thousand push-ups and sit-ups a day—the sit-ups with a hundred-pound weight on his chest. He eats a mostly vegetarian diet and explains why. Pretty inspiring stuff—here.

In his early golf days, Mr. Player says most pros, himself included, didn't think twice about their diet. For the last six years, Mr. Player has followed a mostly vegetarian diet. He says he has much more energy since he's cut out meat. Mr. Player believes that the future of fitness lies in what people eat much more than how active they are. "Nutritionists will be the new trainers." he says. "Diet is 70% of the fitness puzzle."

We're going to the chapel . . .

Beautiful chapel in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, Thorncrown Chapel. Lots of beautiful pictures here—and click on the Virtual Tour link as well for 360 degree photos of the interior.

(Thanks to Robert for the link.)