Love:
- A profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
- a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, asfor a parent, child, or friend.
- affectionate concern for the well-being of others: the love of one's neighbor.
- strong predilection, enthusiasm, or liking for anything: her love of books.
- the object or thing so liked: The theater was her great love
- the benevolent affection of God for His creatures, or the reverent affection due from them to God.
I've been thinking a lot about love over the last few months.
We use the word love for just about everything. "I love that movie," or, "I love this restaurant." I feel like we don't actually know the meaning of the word anymore.
Real love is risky. Love will be completely vulnerable. Love will forsake everything. Love will completely forget about itself and its own interests and desires for the sake of another.
There's a song by Misty Edwards called Arms Wide Open that makes me cry almost every time I hear it. Some of the words are "What does love look like? . . . If all of life comes down to love, then love has to be more than sentiment; more than selfishness and selfish gain. Then I saw Him there, hanging on a tree, looking at me. . .He had arms wide open, a heart exposed, arms wide open, He was bleeding. This is how I know what love is."
I "know" that God is love. I "know" that Jesus died on the Cross because He loves the world. I "know" a lot about love. And yet, I don't love people the way I should. I don't always love people with the kind of love that's willing to be completely vulnerable for the sake of helping someone else. I don't always love people enough to let go of their shortcomings, because apparently I have none (sarcasm). I want so badly to love like Jesus.
Something else I've learned about love is that it promotes growth, no matter what.
You know that saying "God loves you where you are, but loves you too much to leave you that way"? Although I'm not one that generally likes cheesy Christian sayings, the Lord confirmed this one to me through a seemingly silly (and gross) dream.
In the dream, I was potty-training a toddler. I told the girl to go sit on the potty but she didn't listen. She overflowed her pull-up with urine. She looked at me with an "oops" face, but you could tell she wasn't actually sorry for disobeying. Then I heard the voice of a wise old man (I kind of picture him with long, white hair and a beard with glasses reading a giant book) come up beside me and say, "Even though the child disobeyed you and wet her pants because of it, and even though you know that this won't be the last time she does this, does that mean you will keep her in pull-ups for the rest of her life? Of course not! You will keep trying until she gets it. That is love."
As silly as the dream seemed to me at first, I continued to get revelation of what it meant. Whether it's God dealing with us, or someone else who God is using to deal with us, sometimes we have to take (or give!) correction from (to) one another. Sometimes I take the "peace-maker" role and twist it to make me comfortable. I'll try and be a peace-keeper and make sure everyone is happy when I'm supposed to speak up about something. I'm not saying to run around and correct everyone, but sometimes the Lord really does want us to speak up in certain situations, especially with those we call our friends. We need to hold each other accountable and be able to receive right correction (another one I really need to work on).
I am really, really grateful to have such an excellent example of love in Jesus. He was, and is, tangible Love. From washing His disciples' feet (even the feet of Judas, who would betray Him not much later), to dying on the Cross, He risked everything for love.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things endures all things.
~1 Corinthians 13:4-7
