hey blogland. i need your input. i’m teaching this saturday at my church, and i’m talking about love. but i need bigger perspectives than just my own. i’m focusing on the good parts of love, not the love-is-crap mentality, so don’t bother with that.
tell me: what is love? what is love to you? who/what/why do you love?
I reserve the right to use anything anyone posts during the service, however, names will be removed to protect your privacy (irony striking, this IS a blog).
gracias. looking forward to hearing your collective musings. please comment.
what strikes me first is that love is about learning to discern the essentially good things in someone, while not overlooking the areas that are toxic and need transformation. love is a package deal. it’s choosing to stay in the relationship even if the bad stuff hurts us, because we believe in the potential of the really good stuff in someone and in their ability to find change in other stuff. we can’t change them, but always, in love, we will walk alongside them (or even carry them - ala Sam and Frodo - when the burden is too much) as they journey on with whatever it is God has given them to accomplish, and the inevitable suffering they will undergo as He refines their character. and in mutual covenant love, they will do likewise.
so, i guess in the first part of the definition, i really do ‘love’ coffee - cuz i oh so know it’s lovely strengths (!), and hate its biting failures as a brew. but honey, it shore nuff ain’t covenant love like i can have with another person…
parting thought: real love includes a willingness to shed tears for someone, and with someone, and sometimes at someone in their presence so they can understand the impact (for joy or for sorrow) of their life upon yours.
have a cool time teaching, mz k, cuz you rock on on the Rock!
p.s. the irony was too much. as soon as i hit ‘post’ a little ditty of a song occurred to me. everybody hum along now, tune = “Call Me Irresponsible.” (oh, you’ll probably find it on iTunes, probably under sinatra, okay?!) ready? and …
call me non-anonymous
yes i’m quite eponymous
cuz i left my name on your blog ….
[okay, still working on the next verse.]
heh-heh
hey kristen,
from Real Live Preacher’s story
(http://blogs.salon.com/0001772/stories/2002/12/26/thePreachersStoryIn4Parts.html)
:
Love is something you do, not something you feel.
It’s like DC Talk once said - Luv is a verb, yo.
i’m copping out of really discussing what love is to me because it’s late and i’m tired. but you might check out the copy of “on religion” that i think joshua said he had. the whole premise of the book is exploring the question “what do i love when i love my god?” the particular phrasing of the question makes it a good discussion point without even reading the book.
This is obviously a huge topic that can’t easily be minimized into a few words to capture its fullness. Love is different things in different seasons of life. Right now, for me, love is faithfulness through humility. This is a pre-eminent theme I find when I read the gospels. To me it is the basis upon which the Kingdom is built, and the example set forth by Jesus. It manifests in different forms (e.g.: servitude, giving, forgiveness, encouragement, etc.) in our relationships. In these moments of considering such a simple act yet deceptively complex topic, I am often left with no thought other than “Love is”.
I’m reminded of “The Princess Bride.” I’m also reminded of Calvin Miller’s book “A Requiom For Love” which links love with sacrifice.
I am commenting without critically reading all of the former comments, though I did skim them, so I apologize in advance if I’m repetitive.
1) kudos to teaching! (a woman even. shocking!)
2) I think love requires an otherworldy sense of maturity, not that one must behave in the “adult” template, but that one is willing to consider the needs of the other person whom they love before considering one’s own. I think this is a simple concept that we learn all throughout our Christian lives, but it is much more complex in practice. I also believe love is taking note of the unique characteristics of those that you love. Do you know what kind of music they like? Do you know how they feel about certain issues? Do you know what they usually do after one too many drinks? You get what I’m saying. Anyway, there’s my contribution.
love is something i cannot touch with my hands, the ideal of ultimate perfection to be realized after life begins…presently we reach for it.
I often fail to even do that, but this only serves to illustrate the point of perfection being untouchable.
Some random thoughts that came up in trying to think of a response for you:
John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Notice it does not say “no greater example of love”. Love is the action. ItÂ’s not expressed in the action.
The American Heritage Dictionary only acknowledges love as a feeling.
God is love
Christ was not an example of how to love. ChristÂ’s life was love.
Leonard Sweet says, “The word respect means to look again. To re-spect life is to look @ it in multiple times and in multiple ways.”
Our life in Christ, our life in love is paradoxical. We are saint and sinner. We love selfishly.
To love Heather is to pursue her even though she is with me. Day after day and moment to moment I must ‘re-spect’ her. No matter what I see or experience in any given moment, when loving her, I must be there in the next to give my life to her.
Loving Heather means sacrificing my self even in moments in which she is not loving me. And vise versa.
Loving Heather, or anyone, means ‘re-specting’ myself too. I can not love anyone if I am not pursuing a right relationship between myself and God. If I do not take time for myself and pay attention to my own needs I wont be able to give the attention to others when it is needed.
One of the hardest things about love for me is not love as action. It is love as inaction. To love my children means I desire fro them to grow and learn. Sometimes to do this it means to not do anything. Sometimes I need to let them fall. Sometimes I can not give them the answer because they need to figure out how to come up with the answer for themselves.
To love someone I must realize I don’t know them completely. I don’t know how Mikah will best learn something. I need to let him ‘be’ at times so he can experience the process and I can experience it along side him and learn more about him to better love.
If God is love and we are made in his image we can not help but to love. The closer we come to Him the more we will love. Also means the more we will hurt.
None of this is probably what you were looking for but this is what I thought of after reading your post.
Heather and I do love you guys…
hey k. hope your teach-in went well … cool to read the range of comments you got!