love actually is...

not all around? but the movie said it was! yeah hugh grant said that “love actually IS all around…” well my friends, hugh grant is a liar. well maybe that’s a little harsh. hugh grant was slightly “telling a falsity” when he made that quote in the movie Love Actually. first off: what is love? are we love? do we love? who judges and determines the strength and meaning of our love? i don’t just mean love for a sister, a mother, a friend, a girlfriend/boyfriend or a spouse. but what is “love?” is it an emotion? is it a word that you say to express a feeling inside of you? i’d have to disagree with that. sure that’s a part of it…but love is so much more. i am going to contradict myself now by saying that love IS all around us…but it’s not our love. it’s not love from us. it’s not love from others. it’s the only perfect love…agape love…from the only one who can possess such a strong affection. that’s the thing about God that never ceases to amaze me. no matter what i do, no matter what i’ve done, and even knowing what i will do in the future God loves me all the same. that is love. that is true love. no person can possess such a great love. when we look at love we need to look at it in that perspective. not just say “i love you” and buy flowers to show it but it goes beyond that.

in Corinthians 13 paul writes a letter not only to the church of corinth but to Christians everywhere. many of you have probably heard this or read it for yourselves. in the new living translation chapter 13 reads as follows:

“ If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn't love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn't love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would be of no value whatsoever. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Love will last forever, but prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will all disappear. Now we know only a little, and even the gift of prophecy reveals little! But when the end comes, these special gifts will all disappear. It's like this: When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now. There are three things that will endure--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love.”

a friend of mine recently put it to me this way. look at the good in there, not the negative. just to start off. there are seven things to identify. love is: patient, kind, always rejoicing, faithful, hopeful, enduring, and never gives up. this is the love we should strive for. i challenge you…next time you think you love someone, think “do i really?” we’ll never love perfectly, but we should at least try. just think about it.
believe. live.
- david