Love is a very peculiar thing.....we use this WORD all the time, all over the place and in many different ways. Unfortunately many people use it to take advantage of another person's desire to hear the "L" word. Many use it without even realizing the power that this one little word possesses, or how it changes the emotions of those who hear it. People will often say at the end of a phone call.....most of the time out of habit..."bye, I love you" and then of course the response...."love you too."
Do we really love or truly mean love every time we use it? I don't think so. I think we want to mean it or we feel we should mean it, because how cruel or lonely a life would be if we did not love or receive love. I have realized more and more as the years go on that love...true love, takes work, takes effort, takes us out of our comfort zones. It is hard to explain and sometimes hard to show. I also realize in this society or generation that exists today, love is far from the forefront of most young peoples lives. We live in a very MYOPIC world...meaning most people are truly only concerned with self...IE...My life, My choices, My future, My friends, My church, My, My, My.....
So how do we get back to loving each other the way God would have us to? How do we get away from "OUR" concerns and look for the interest of others. Read I Corinthians 13 aka the LOVE chapter gives us Christians what it means to have love. The checklist of what Love is and is not is thorough and cannot be twisted to suit our selfish desires or interests. It is an emptying of ourselves for the benefit of another.....sound familiar? Christ emptied Himself to become sin for YOU so that YOU could experience true love. So that you could show true love, so that you would know true love.
When training bank personnel for their jobs of handling currency, they will make them handle real money over and over again. Looking at it, handling it, feeling it, and studying it. Why? So they by knowing the real thing will easily recognize the fake. Knowing real love and experiencing real love and giving real love will help you know when it is false and selfishly based. Knowing Christ's love is the first step...Do you know Christ's love? Not know who He is.....Know His Love!? The World will give you fakes and do a really good job and making it seem like the real thing. But, If you Know Christ's love, experience Christ's love, practice Christ's love.....you will know and easily pick out the fake or false love.
Today I was in a grocery store in Nassau, and in front of me was an elderly lady of Haitian decent. She was slow and was causing the line to back up. People all behind me were extremely frustrated (If you know Bahamians....we have a way of pushing our weight around) and growing more and more anxious as the minutes went on. This lady had a check to endorse and then use a card and then the rest with cash, so it was taking time and the cashier was markedly frustrated and short with the lady. I thought to myself that this is somebody's mother, sister, daughter, grandmother, or worse yet, completely alone in life to fend for herself. I smiled at her and let her know it was ok and she could take her time. How easy would it have been to become frustrated with her and let her know by my actions and disgust of the time she was taking? Easy, but Christ's love came to my mind and how would He have treated this lady. Our society is off! We are off! And the only way back to normal is to let the Love of Christ rule our hearts.
Read I Corinthians 13 again and realize without LOVE we are a complete and useless waste of time and energy. We are NOTHING without the Love of Christ ruling our hearts, lives, actions and thoughts. We need to change now, we need to let go of the fake and false love and recognize the love of Christ.
Where's the Love? Let it show and live it loud. Practice love and remember.....How can you say you love God, when you cannot show love to those who are right in front of you and need you to love them.
I am speaking to myself as well here....so let's all Love first and let the rest follow after that love.
WORD!
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