Love God.
Love your neighbor.
The two central commands of Christianity. These are what it all boils down to. So far so good. And yet, when push comes to shove, what is love?
We know that love is good. We want to be loved. We know love when we encounter it. We experience joy when we give it to others and when it is given to us.. We want it in our lives and we pursue it.
But…….can we define it…….. accurately describe it? Because if we go on out into the marketplace looking for it, we are going to have a hard time……….if we don’t have a good, solid, accurate vision of what it is.
The truth is that most of us carry around a warm, fuzzy, soft focus notion of love. We stumble into it from time to time. But, we struggle when we try to make it happen. We struggle when we try to build it. Imagine a general contractor who tries to build a house………without a clear vision of what a home is……..what it is constructed with………what its function is.
So………. what is love?
Love is a relationship……. between two or more.
Love is selfless………its focus is outward……on the other guy.
Love is honest, transparent. It tells the truth……it hides nothing.
Love is founded on free will.
Love generates joy…….but not in the normal way. Most of our transactions involve a “quid pro quo”. I give you this…..and you give me something back. Love is different…….it gives with no predetermined repayment. We send it out with no expectation of a “return on our investment”. The best of us radiate love……without any preconditions. Then a miracle happens. The love returns to us……bigger and better than what we sent out……. freely sent to us by another………. someone who is operating on the same set of rules that we use.
This is the relationship that we all want. We see it from time to time in others. I would go so far as to say that this type of love……….is the most desirable thing in the universe.
Love…..freely given……and freely returned……is the most desirable thing in the universe.
And yet…….many of us struggle through our lives without it.
So……..how do we make love happen? How do we create love?
Here’s the good news……..the simple truth is……….that we can make love happen. We solve the “love problem” the same way we solve any other problem. We focus on the part of the problem that we can control. We perform an act of love……we walk up to a wall and toss a handful of love over it…….then we walk away. That’s all. Then we come back later……..and do it again…….and again. Until, one day, the miracle happens, a fistful of love comes back over the wall.
Love is not a “zero sum game”. When we give it away, we don’t have less. The people with the most love in their lives…… paradoxically……..are the people who give the most love away.
Love is written on our hearts.
It was put there by the guy who created us.
He wants us to love because he loves us.
That is the very heart of our relationship with God.
Love……freely given……..and freely returned.
“And, in the end, the love you take…….is equal to the love….. you make”
John Lennon
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.
Paul, NIV
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends”
Jesus, NIV