Love is one of the words that gets tossed around in such an easy and often flippant way.  We say “I love you, I love this or I love that” and often apply it to all sorts of different things, when what we really should be saying is “I like”, but it’s more than like, so it must be love right?  Wrong!

Love is the action of sacrificing for and being committed to another for nothing in return.  Love is much more than a word, it is action.  Love is much more than feeling, it is commitment.  Love is much more than emotion, it is divine.  Love is not about what it can get, but what it can give.

I Corinthians 13:4-8 describes it this way:  “4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  8 Love never fails.”

When we think about what it means to love, we need to think about how God loves us. Listen close to the birds as they sing to one another and you will hear the wisper of God’s love.  God out of His great and amazing love for us has an ongoing conversation through what we see, hear, feel, taste and smell.  God communicates with us even when we are not paying attention, because He loves us and in that love He is waiting for us to hear it, get it, experience it.

Our way of loving Him back is by being attentive, by paying attention, by hearing what it is that He is saying.  The world that we live in is alive with God’s presence, power and love.  Through His great love for us God can and will take even the bad and use it for our good as we love Him back.

Love is an amazing gift of God.  Receive it and give it!  Dr. Kent M. Keith gives us some great advice on receiving and sharing the love of God with the actions of our life, when he teaches us in “The Paradoxical Commandments” that:

“People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.”