Love

Funny how I could go so far in my life as a 'Christian' but still lack the very foundation of my faith, love. It wasn't 'till the past few years that I really began to grasp love. God's love for me, loving him and also loving others as he does. Each of us have a longing in our soul for something more than what we are born into, and it's love. And when a person wakes up to that realisation of what it's missing, they chase it and find it whatever the cost. So that's what I want to write about tonight.

People weren't created merely to exist, and those who are Christians aren't saved by Christ just to hold their little salvation ticket in their pocket 'till the end of time. So why does our world look more and more like that's what it's all about? When I step back and look at life, and wonder over 'why' and the purpose of it, it doesn't take long to realise that without love it's all worthless. But in a world where people say 'love' more in reference to a cute hand bag or feeling a bit of lust, where charismatic words to love others are often followed by little reaction to thoughts and tears of compassion, how do we know what love even is? Is it something you fall into, or something that you chose to consume every bit of who you are? Is it real for the length of an emotional moment, or is it something that never ends, that toughs it out through every tear, smile, fight, and fear? Could it be that love is more than we've estimated, that we've watered it down to definitions and emotions so we can be more comfortable with it, to where we can understand and calculate it, to the point where it's simply human in our minds?

I believe it's something greater than what the human mind can even comprehend, but the longing of each soul that can never be fulfilled by anything else. I believe love is the only thing that holds the fighting and distanced family together, I believe love is the only thing that overcomes addictions, I believe love is the only way to end poverty, I believe love is the only thing that takes broken, wandering hearts and shows them purpose and truth in this often dark world. But how do we get that? This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.... This is love:not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 3:16a, 4:10
How do we love when it's been a mere word and feeling to us our whole lives?
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18

Love is more than a word, it's more than a feeling, it's more than something that just happens or that you fall into for a while, it is the only thing that can pull our world out of it's self destroying cycle. Love, let's invite it into the deepest places of our hearts and souls, let us take what we've been given and run to the farthest corners of this world, to the beggar down the street and the widow next door. We are here for so much more than just this life. Love, it's what we are created for.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16