What Is Love?

Original post from July 13th, 2017

“What scares you?” He asked. What followed was unexpected. 

She answered, “Honestly, not fulfilling the calling God has placed on my life is something that shakes me to my core…” 

Sitting in the cold, somewhere between a daydream and nightfall, she was jolted with truth. Soul piercing and fear inducing truth, in the form of a question. It was the end of December and slightly after midnight, there was snow on the ground and adventure surrounded the very bench they sat on. They found themselves engaged in conversation, discussing everything from world issues to favorite colors, but what they discovered was so much more than that. The things brought to life in this brief encounter were hope, joy, and, maybe, not in this exact moment, but love. The kind of love only fairytales speak of. One that ignites something within your heart to know everything about someone. The kind of love worth fighting for. After hiding your heart so deep within God’s presence, you thought no one could ever find it. The only problem, fairytales are not an accurate depiction of what love is. More like an illusion powerful enough to cloud the reality of what love requires. 

There are so many things about love that are superficial and selfish in today’s culture. God teaches us a different way of loving. Where it becomes a choice. You have to choose to love when it hurts, when it heals, when it’s happy, when it’s sad, when the finger is pointed at you, when it can’t love you back. There is no formula, no. However, there is a verse for that. Much like “there is an app for that.” (Ironic). So instead of tell you what I believe love is, let’s see what Jesus has to say. 1 Corinthians 3:4-8 says this,

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

I don’t know about you but when I read this, the first word that comes to mind is “Crap!” We don’t have to read past the first verse for me to have a problem. As a matter of fact, the third word within this whole piece of scripture stops me dead in my tracks. Patience.

Patience is defined as, the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. “Um, excuse me?!” Did it really say without getting angry or upset? Big problem. I can’t handle traffic for longer than five minutes without screaming silently to myself, within my car, while then wishing my fellow commuters to have a “blessed day” out the window as I go around them. It seems so overwhelming and so impossible to follow the example Jesus has given us to love others. Whether it be romantically or not, love is not meant to be a whimsical feeling we get prompted by butterflies and musicals just around the corner. It’s much messier than that. 

It is a choice. An extremely hard dedication you must make day after day, pain after pain, battle after battle, disappointment after disappointment. It shows up when no one else does, fights for what it believes in. Stands when all fall away. Trusts when it has no reason to. Gives over and over and over again with no expectation for payback. It’s selfless and forgiving. Justice and mercy. It’s faith and hope, security and stability. It’s comfort and peace. It’s Jesus..

Jesus is love and was made flesh to show a rotten and dying world like ours how possible it actually is walk out, through Him and Him alone. No matter what we choose in this life, love is the most important. It has more power than we could ever imagine. The huge acts of faith mean very little if love is not the motivation in the small steps along the way.

We will never be perfect and have every line of these verses figured out, but, one day at a time Jesus can transform our hearts to look more and more like His. 

He pursues but never forces us to love, we must choose it. 

Much love,

K