A Conversation With Max Lucado

Author of A Love Worth Giving

Q. In the title of your new book, A Love Worth Giving, are you referencing the love God has given us or the love we should give away to others?

A. I’m talking about both, because they are really the same. If we haven’t received love ourselves, how can we give it to others? We need help from an outside source. A transfusion. If we want to love as God loves, we start by receiving his love.

Q. Your book is based on I Corinthians 13, known to many as “the love chapter” in the Bible. For some, those verses (love is patient, kind, does not envy . . .) are the catalyst for a long guilt trip. Have you ever felt that way?

A. For years I had a problem with this paragraph. It set a standard I could not meet. No one can meet it. No one, that is, except Christ. Does this passage describe my love? No, but it does describe the measureless love of God that is available for us all.

Q. Love seems to be an evergreen topic, so why did you choose the subject of divine love right now?

A. Nothing heals like love. And no time in history has the world needed healing more than now—with stories of terror and betrayal filling newspapers and piercing hearts. So I want to direct people to the source of healing: Jesus. No one offers greater love, hope, and healing than our Savior.

Q. We seem to live in an increasingly “angry” society, yet your book reminds readers “love is not easily angered.” Why do you think anger (such as road rage) is a hallmark of American living?

A. Anger has many causes. And although the fire of anger has many logs, the thickest and hottest block of wood is rejection. We all feel rejected in small ways, but imagine the pain of an abandoned teen or divorced spouse. As our society is increasingly fragmented, and people’s hearts are rejected again and again, the anger is bound to surface. But there is a balm for the pain, for the anger: acceptance. And if we discover that God has doused our red-hot anger with unconditional love, wouldn’t that make a difference?

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Lucado Conversation, page two

Q. What relevance does the message of your book hold for today’s church leaders?

A. I hope preachers realize we have been guilty of skipping the first step in teaching people to love. “Love each other!” we tell our churches. But instructing people to love without telling them they are loved is like telling them to write a check without making a deposit into their accounts. Hearts have insufficient love. The message of the book, for preachers both personally and vocationally, is “don’t neglect the receiving of God’s love.” Let it flow over you first, experience it daily. Then you can tell others about the source of love, about the power we have to love others.

Q: Chapter thirteen addresses the idea that “love always believes.” How do you think that can be lived out in family life between parents and children?

A. I have a great example from my own life. I was thirteen-years-old when my second error of the baseball game allowed the winning run—for the other team. I didn’t even go back to the dugout; I started walking home. My dad found me, pulled over to the side of the road, and opened the passenger door. We didn’t speak. When we got home, I went straight to my room, and he went straight to the kitchen. Presently he appeared in front of me with cookies and milk. He took a seat in front of me, and we broke bread together. Somewhere in the dunking of the cookies I began to realize that life and my father’s love would go on. My skill as a baseball player didn’t improve, but my confidence in Dad’s love did. He never said a word. But he did show up. He did listen up.

Q. What do you hope readers will “take away” from A Love Worth Giving?

A. Two things. First, I hope readers will take away hope. You know, it's not up to us alone to fulfill the command to 'love one another'—we need God in us to accomplish this. Secondly, I hope readers take away a personal realization that God loves them personally, powerfully, passionately—and I hope they let that love empower them with love for others.