Love....
Everyone "knows" has an idea of what love is, but if you ask anyone on the street to define it, how to communicate it to another human being.We know nothing about love, absolutely nothing here in America about love, we fall in and out of love like its a fashion statement. We use love so loosely about loving this and that were years ago it would have been I like this, I enjoy that, or this pleases me. We have taken a word with so much meaning and power and have stripped it down to the level of a off-handed comment.The Greeks had four (4) words for love: agápe, éros, philía, and storgē; each had their own meaning and use.
For knowing so little about love we are fascinated with the thought of it, most of us are in love with the thought of being in love and idea of love. Just look at all the poems, movies, books, songs, art, and so on all portraying what "Love" is. Don't believe me, look at a lot of the pop culture; it is filled with love. Filled with love gained, love lost, falling into love, falling out of it, finding the one and finding out they are not the one. Love is everywhere else as well: it's in the air(especially now and in the spring), in our speech and actions.But love has so many meanings in today's English, we use it in the case of caring for, infatuation, likes, desire, and even use it in sarcasm. People always criticize others for using the word hate because "Hate is such a strong word." My response to this is "Love is a strong word and we use that loosely as well." This doesn't mean that it is right, or even justified, but rather this is a just to point out the flawed logic in the statement.
Now for a change in direction. Love is also one of the main attributes of a leader and a major part of a relationship. Love is hard to define but I want to define it as other(s) directed, and use the synonyms care and compassion to further the understanding of the definition. Love needs to be in a relationship to make a great leader just that, great. I really want to stay away from all the cliché sayings like "what the world need now is love, sweet love," "give a little bit of your love...," or "All you need is Love" but we all need love, real love. Love can be found anywhere there is a real, genuine relationship. It can be in a family, between friends, and so on as long as it is a reflection of the vertical love we both give and receive. We need both vertical and horizontal love in our lives. But God, Jesus, and the Bible (all Sunday school answers) tell us to love our neighbors as ourselves and the enemies. G.K. Chesterton explains this well saying, "The Bible tells us to love our neighbors and also to love our enemies, probably because they're generally the same people." Therefore I repeat LOVE: Love God, Love Others. (Matt. 22:34-40).
I am still Learning how to do this by evidence of last night or rather really early this morning around 1 am. I wanted to go to bed and the guys in my hall were filming in my room, which I allowed them to.It was taking too long, in my opinion, to get a scene filmed and I was tired and irritated (not a good combo). Then I proceeded try to help so the scene could be filmed and I could go to bed. The got the scene filmed and I got to go to bed. This morning I checked my e-mail and found an e-mail confronting me on my attitude and my actions/words during this process. I realized that I was wrong and that I had sinned, this was not my first response though; the first response was to make excuses and defend myself against this light of truth from a brother who does not know me well. I have written an e-mail back saying that I would like to ask for his forgiveness and talk with him, face-to-face, whenever he is free and until then to please forgive me. This was a smack upside the head for me, another hey body you haven't arrived moment (thats two over the weekend). I do try to live out the Love God, Love Others idea but I lose sight of this every once and a while, and last night was one of those times. I forget love is a verb not a noun or adjective, or adverb, etc.; it is a constant action(s) and thought of mind. We, myself included, need to live like this at all times and remember what true love is: Love is patient Love is kind.... and so on. Therefore live out the word Love, for actions do speak louder than words. Happy Valentine's Day and may God bless you.
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