Love

So this is more of a 'blog' and less of an update. Know that when I was writing this it was just as much for me as for anyone else. Although the questions and commands in this can be applied to anyone, for me to truly believe them they must first be applied to myself. I have been talking a lot about love lately, and last night I had to stop and really think about what I was talking about. What is love? These are some of my thoughts on it. I don't claim to really know what I am talking about or have all the answers. Take this as you want... right or wrong, these are my thoughts on the subject.

Love. What is it? Love is an emotion that so captivates us as human beings. But what does it mean to truly love someone? Not the gushy tripping over your own words because you are head over heels for someone romantically love, but the love for your neighbor, your “brother”, your “sister”, the love for Christ and the love that Christ has for you. What is this kind of love? How do you define it? How do you practice it??

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 is a verse that kept coming to mind tonight when I was thinking about love. Now I know this verse is (in my opinion) one that is overly quoted in the romantic scenario, I think that it is completely overlooked as applied to any other facet of our life. It reads: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Take a moment and think about this verse. Meditate on it. What would our lives look like if we took this to heart. If this became the golden rule of our life? What would the world look like if everyone walking around practiced this as the foundation that we should build our lives around. (Well the foundation apart from Christ alone.)

Love is patient. How often do we rush people along because we feel we have something better to do. We don't take time to ask people how they are doing because we have to run and grab a coffee before our next meeting. We honk our horn at the old woman driving slowly rather than patiently driving behind her, enjoying the scenery that God gave us. We rush through our lives not looking around, not caring who we are passing by. Not caring who we are missing, what person we are overlooking in order for us to get our next foot in the next door of life.

Love is kind. This one seems sort of self explanatory. But how often are we kind to those that it benefits us to be kind to. I know I am guilty of it. It's easy to be kind to those who are kind to us. It is easy to be kind to those who can help us. But what about the beggar on the side of the road. What about the child sitting at the restaurant next to you who won't stop screaming. Love is kind. To everyone. All of the time. There are no exceptions. Love does not know boundaries. It does not know the walls that culture has put in place. The kindness of love should transcend all divides that society might happen to put in place, that we might happen to put in place.

Envy. Pride. Boastfulness. Have you ever had a day where you have not felt or participated in one of these things? Because I haven't. To truly love someone else you need to humble yourself. Now there is a word for you- humility. That is another lofty word that is worth defining. The dictionary says humility is a noun- it says it is the modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance. I believe humility is so much more than this. I believe humility is impossible without love. Without compassion. Those things that you envy- are you worthy of them? Are any of us worthy of them? Isn't the only person who is and was ever worthy of any of the splendor and glory of this world Christ Himself? What do we have to be proud of? To boast about? We are constantly falling short of what we are meant to be. We can do nothing on our own. In order to love someone don't you have to first realize this? It doesn't matter if you are black or white, rich or poor, you are still unworthy. Nothing you do will ever measure up to something that is worth the grace that we receive. I think it is only in recognizing this in humility that we can start to love people the way God intended us to love them.

Love ALWAYS protects, ALWAYS trusts, ALWAYS hopes, ALWAYS perseveres. Not sometimes. Not when it is convenient. ALWAYS. Stop for a second and think about that. Think about always protecting those around you. Protecting them at any cost. Putting your life before theirs. How different would our world be if instead of worrying about how we were going to make that next thousand dollars, we worried about how to protect those that live on less than a dollar a day. Love always trusts, hopes, preservers... always. No exceptions. How glorious would our world be if we lived this out. There would be no need (if there is one anyway) for war, for guns, for fighting. If we lived this verse out love would always persevere. It would always come out on top, and the world would be an amazing place because of it. Think of how much less suffering there would be. How much less hurt there would be. Think about all the things we could accomplish together if we lived in a community that loved each other, loved our neighbors, with the love that is described in this verse.

Love is a verb, not a noun. It is an action word. Go live out a life full of love. Go live out a life full of THISkind of love. Live out a life where this kind of love is applied not just to our husbands and wives, not just our mothers and brothers and sisters- our blood, but a life where this love is given out to the broken and destitute, the oppressed and the impoverished. The needy. The poor. The lonely. The homeless. Go out and live a life of love- this kind of love- to EVERYONE around you. Do it. I dare you. See how it will change your life.