I have been thinking a lot about love lately. Love in friendship, in marriage, in parenting. Love for those we don't even know.
Love is awesome. It is beautiful. It is something every single one of us needs although some can't or won't admit it. To show love is a choice. Sometimes a very difficult choice and sometimes the opposite of how we feel.
It is what we as Christians are called to do. We have been called to love others more than ourselves. To love others the way we want to be loved. We are also called to love ALL. Yes, that means not just our families or people of our own race or people we find pleasant or people that are like us. That means people that are rude, poor, struggling, different, man, woman, child. The list goes on. And that my friends, is no easy feat because we weren't called to love to receive anything in return. We weren't called to love because someone is nice to us or fulfills some deep desire within ourselves. We are called to love no. matter. what. And it is a choice.
In today's world we are taught to believe that we only do what benefits ourselves. You get married and promise forever but really you only stay as long as you are fulfilled. You stay friends with someone as long as they can fill some gap in your life but as soon as they have nothing to offer you, you drop them like a hot potato. And that is NOT the way of true love.
True love gives until it hurts. It says "I know right now there is nothing you can give me emotionally or physically but I chose to love you anyway". True love grows from the personal experience of God's love. There is no love on this earth like His love for us. I don't know many people who love those who hate them so much that they deny their existence or even want to murder them, do you?
You see, anger, hate, bitterness and grudge holding, they are easy. You don't have to think too much about those. They are in our nature. Choosing love, kindness, forgiveness
and joy, they are a sign of true strength and wisdom because they take work.
Honestly, when you choose to love, there will be many, MANY times when you receive nothing except the satisfaction of knowing you are doing the right thing. But it will change lives, including your own.
Lately, I have had to put these very things into practice and it is something I will never perfect on this earth but want to work hard at every day for the rest of my life. And although I have not reaped any physical benefits from it and in many cases never will, I have a peace and joy from it. I want to live a life of love because I have the knowledge that anything I do without love amounts to nothing. And more importantly because there is Someone that I hurt all the time through my choices that continues to love me more than I could ever know and I am so thankful for His love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (NIV)
1 Corinthians 13:4–8a 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. Love never fails ... (NIV)
