“I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world…” —Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 -1968), Baptist minister and leader in the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 to 1968
According to Wikipedia, “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” is a song originally performed in 1969 by Jackie DeShannon, who composed it with her brother Randy Myers and Jimmy Holiday. In the U.S., it was DeShannon’s highest-charting hit, reaching #4 on the Hot 100 in August 1969 and #2 on the Adult Contemporary charts. In late 1969, the song reached number one on South Africa’s hit parade….The song rivaled the success of her signature song, “What the World Needs Now Is Love” (1965). (Quote source here.)
With all that has already transpired this year (2020) starting off with the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, and then the rioting, violence and looting that took place in late May and ongoing into June that stemmed from the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25th, what the world needs now, as Jackie DeShannon sang back in 1965, “is love, sweet love” (YouTube video below).
While the world certainly does need more love, it all starts with each and every one of us. Here are the lyrics to “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” (YouTube videos are below):
Think of your fellow man
Lend him a helping hand
Put a little love in your heart
You see it’s getting late
Oh, please don’t hesitate
Put a little love in your heart
And the world will be a better place
And the world will be a better place
For you and me
You just wait and see
Another day goes by
Still the children cry
Put a little love in your heart
If you want the world to know
We won’t let hatred grow
Put a little love in your heart
And the world will be a better place
All the world will be a better place
For you
And me
You just wait
And see, wait and see
Take a good look around
And if you’re looking down
Put a little love in your heart
I hope when you decide
Kindness will be your guide
Put a little love in your heart
And the world will be a better place
And the world will be a better place
For you and me
You just wait and see
People, now put a little love in your heart
Each and every day
Put a little love in your heart
There’s no other way
Put a little love in your heart
It’s up to you
Put a little love in your heart
C’mon and
Put a little love in your heart
You’ve got to open the love in your heart
(Lyrics source: Genius.com)
One of the most quoted sources on the topic of love comes from 1 Corinthians 13, and this is a good time during the upheaval caused by the pandemic and the discord going on here in America to be reminded of what it states. While nobody is perfect in what this passage states regarding love, we all know from personal experience how easy it is to get upset or hateful towards others including those we claim to love, and especially towards those we don’t understand or even know. This is just a reminder that love really is far more powerful then hate, and it is up to us to decide which road to take on a daily and even hourly or moment-by-moment basis.
The following is taken from the NLT version of 1 Corinthians 13, and it will also serve as the ending for this blog post:
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
Love is patient and kind.
Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
It does not demand its own way.
It is not irritable,
and it keeps no record of being wronged.
It does not rejoice about injustice
but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
Love never gives up,
never loses faith,
is always hopeful,
and endures through every circumstance.
Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever….
Faith, hope, and love . . .
And the greatest of these . . .
Is love . . . .
YouTube Video: “What the World Needs Now” (1965) sung by Jackie DeShannon:
YouTube Video: “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” (1969) written and sung by Jackie DeShannon:
YouTube Video: “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” (1988) sung by Annie Lennox and Al Green:
Sara's Reflections 