Love is . . .

I know I am a day early, since it seems this has become a weekly blog rather than my initial intent to post daily. I am a work in progress, and God is not through with me yet.

I just couldn't wait any longer! I am bursting at the seems because Saturday is Valentine's Day, and I am hopelessly in love. I have met the man of my dreams and am completely smitten by him. He absolutely takes my breath away. Yeah, I can hardly believe it too. So I only thought it would be appropriate to focus today's pearl of wisdom on love.

There are many kinds of love, phileo - brotherly love; eros - sexual / relational love; and agape- the unconditional God kind of love. Phileo love is the affection people who share things in common have for one another. Eros is the infatuation and attraction that married couples share, as the scripture declares that the marriage bed is undefiled. The greatest of these is agape; it is a love that is based on the lover and not the beloved. This means that the giver does not focus on the receiver; the giver is blinded by love. It is the love that 1 Corinthians 13 explains. It is the love that is patient, kind, isn't jealous or bragging. It isn't proud nor does it seek its own way. It isn't rude, doesn't get angry, and never keeps score.

Love rejoices in truth, protects the beloved, trusts, hopes, perseveres, and love never fails.
So many people have their own views of love, but often our views have been tainted from God's original idea of love. I wonder how many times we are impatient, or mean, or jealous, and count how many times our loved ones mess up. That according to God, is not love. So how can we ever live up to God's expectations of love? Is it even possible to react with joy when people we love tell us the truth, do we speak life to people we love to protect the gift God has placed in them? Are we capable of trusting, hoping, and pushing forward to better love those we have been blessed with? Can we accept others' mistakes but continue to love without fail?

Yes, we can love with the agape, God kind of love while we are here on earth. The answer simply lies in receiving love from Jesus that He unselfishly gives to us. The next step is to turn our heart's affection to our loving Father, and then we are equipped to share and spread agape love to all those we encounter. You may wonder what about the person or people that are supposed to love me; what if they don't act like that? Well, that is not agape thinking. You are supposed to be consumed with being a lover not focusing on how your beloved reacts. Isn't that what Jesus did for us? He became consumed with loving you and me even though we didn't deserve it. But after He kept on loving us, we soon realized that we needed and wanted His love. So we began to love Him back. That is what we are commanded to do: Love one another. Not love each other if they love you back! That is the world's view of love, not God's.

So today, on Valentine's Day, and every day for the rest of your life, make a conscious decision to love. To offer unconditional love to those around you. You must remember whether its brotherly or sisterly love or romantic / sexual love, you must love like God, with everything that is within you regardless of whether you receive that kind of love from other humans or not. After all God is still in love with you!

This week's challenge is to show each kind of love to the people in your path. Why not perform a Random Act of Love to some friend, do something unexpected, not necessarily materially costly but sacrificial in love. Why not write a love poem to your spouse and with your pen and paper show him or her that you love them unconditionally. Remember love is about the lover not the beloved. So forget about his or her shortcomings and remind them why you fell in love in the first place. Don't forget it’s about how you feel not how he or she responds. That should free you to set your heart on your sleeve; no one is going to knock it off because you already know that God will touch them in his own time and way to be able to give you back agape love, when you are not even looking for it to happen.
Happy Love Day!