The word love has so many meanings in our culture today. We use the term loosely, as if it is some spare change being thrown around because of its lack of greater value. Over-rated, misused, unreal, impossible, all of these and more describe how a generation feels about love today. How do we feel about love in context to our future? Is there a hope for a love that is stronger than death, a love that is full of grace or full of mercy? Will there be a love that will overlook who I was or who I struggle to not be? Do we realize the love that compelled God to send His only son is the same love that we are commanded as Christ followers to extend to our neighbors? However, the same neighbors that have beliefs that are misaligned with the core beliefs we may have as followers of Christ are the very people that we are called to love. The truth is that many of us would find it difficult to define what love even is. In general terms we could agree that love, at the least is best described as a verb. Meaning that it requires, even compels us, to do something with the emotion we call love. There is something that wells up in us and there is a split second that we must decide whether to dismiss it or put it in action. The voice inside says, "Give a kind word to that person standing in line waiting for their food……..quick". What do you do with that simple yet compelling impulse? There is a split second that you are in contact, potentially to the end of time, with a person that needs... that is crying out inside for someone to say something…..anything…..please someone just notice that I am alive today…..that I matter and I am crying out for someone to tell me that it is ok to feel like this and that I matter. What do I do….what do I say…..what if they think that I am crazy….what if they tell me to shut up? The truth is that it does matter…you should say it…it may not matter what you even say….you may indeed look crazy and if you say nothing at all you have already shut up.
As a believer in the word of God, as absolute truth and not just some well written guide to a better life and success, there is compelling evidence that points to the expressions of God’s love for us. Read here how it is put so plainly in The Message: John 3:16 "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.” God did not send His one and only Son so that He could merely experience life here on earth as a human as a test to His creative skill set. God, the creator of all things, was compelled by His love for us to send Jesus to overcome death so that we have the opportunity to spend eternity with Him in heaven. We are an object of His expression that can be summed up into one word....love. In our growing understanding of God’s love for us and what that means in direct proportion to those around us we must take love from an experience.... to an expression!!
As a believer in the word of God, as absolute truth and not just some well written guide to a better life and success, there is compelling evidence that points to the expressions of God’s love for us. Read here how it is put so plainly in The Message: John 3:16 "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.” God did not send His one and only Son so that He could merely experience life here on earth as a human as a test to His creative skill set. God, the creator of all things, was compelled by His love for us to send Jesus to overcome death so that we have the opportunity to spend eternity with Him in heaven. We are an object of His expression that can be summed up into one word....love. In our growing understanding of God’s love for us and what that means in direct proportion to those around us we must take love from an experience.... to an expression!!
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