To Love and Be Loved?
I read this bit of wisdom in a fortune cookie this past week. "To love and be loved are the greatest blessings" I thought that it was very appropriate for Valentine's Day. Moreover, it was important for all of life.
I have been desiring more and more deep friendships (see the previous blog). I believe God made us for deep relationship with Him and others. What I see though, more and more, is that we really have very little comprehension of what love really is.
I love pizza. I love the Cleveland Cavs. I love my friends. I love my wife. The problem is with all of these examples, love is not really perfect. (Even as much as I love Janet) I have come to realize in the church and in friendships in general, we practice cordiality and we practice friendliness, we rarely practice love.
If we really loved, we would sacrifice for each other. If we really loved, we would be intimately concerned about each other's lives, likes, families and inner souls. Instead, we often just have warm feelings for each other. Real love is very unselfish and self-sacrificing (read Phil. 2).
I tell people, especially my kids (biological and those by proxy) that I love them. I have many people say they love me too. I wonder how many I have blessed by REALLY loving them. Love really means laying down your agenda and wants for the ones you really love.
I wonder if we will really ever get to the point where we will really bless each other with our love.
Do you see real love in the church? Do you see the church spreading love? Do you really feel blessed and are you sharing blessing? Do you have deep relationships with others?
Is this really possible?
What do you think?
I have been desiring more and more deep friendships (see the previous blog). I believe God made us for deep relationship with Him and others. What I see though, more and more, is that we really have very little comprehension of what love really is.
I love pizza. I love the Cleveland Cavs. I love my friends. I love my wife. The problem is with all of these examples, love is not really perfect. (Even as much as I love Janet) I have come to realize in the church and in friendships in general, we practice cordiality and we practice friendliness, we rarely practice love.
If we really loved, we would sacrifice for each other. If we really loved, we would be intimately concerned about each other's lives, likes, families and inner souls. Instead, we often just have warm feelings for each other. Real love is very unselfish and self-sacrificing (read Phil. 2).
I tell people, especially my kids (biological and those by proxy) that I love them. I have many people say they love me too. I wonder how many I have blessed by REALLY loving them. Love really means laying down your agenda and wants for the ones you really love.
I wonder if we will really ever get to the point where we will really bless each other with our love.
Do you see real love in the church? Do you see the church spreading love? Do you really feel blessed and are you sharing blessing? Do you have deep relationships with others?
Is this really possible?
What do you think?
posted by Larry at 8:33 AM
4 Comments:
Your shortest post thus far is about love. And it proves the simplicity of something that is the greatest healer of all of us. It is when I came to the end of love and lost it, then had it returned to me by the love of the Saviour that I began to realize the truth of loving each other deeply. There is much I could say, but would rather not here. Other than, loving each other in the way I think you are asking here is what Christ expects of us. Those that have lost loved ones or connected families for whatever reason, know that to love our families, our brothers and sisters in Christ, or those outside of Christ is what brings the power and love of God into our relationships. Our own lives. And sustains us even when we find ourselves alone. How many married people sit in the same room with their spouse or children not even understanding or aware of the love that they are connected to? Only to discover this after a death, divorce or children have left home. Then you come to this in your own lonely space. My plea to anyone reading this, is to love. And love deeply. Love before it is too late. Love your church. Love each other, seek them out. Find them. Bring them close. It's the most wonderful aspect of life we can know.
Thank you for your post today Larry. It is one that is close to my heart. Dare I say, close to the Father's heart. It is a good place to be.
Wow, I found your blog and I am glad I did, I have to say this blog got to me. I have struggled with the belief in God for some time now. I lost a daughter and this is where it all began. And I can say that I did not feel love and honestly havent really since then. Now, this is excluding my two kids. Weird because when I read this blog it made me think is it really possible? or did I just shut the world from loving me? *thinking*........
Annie,
Glad you stumbled by. I am not as faithgul as I used to be, especially since people do so much on facebook. I hope you are blessed by love somehow today.
Keep visiting..We discuss a bunch of stuff..
Do you have an affiliation with a church?
"To love and be loved are the greatest blessing" - usually fortune cookie words are pithy and witty...but this one is so intensely profound. You got a bonus with your Moo Goo Gai Pan and chopsticks.
It is such a deep blessing to give love - to be able to pour ourselves into someone, a situation, a relationship.
It is such an intensely fulfilling blessing to receive it back. Honest love. Pure love. That doesn't have an agenda or a list of requirements that must be met before its shared.
You're right Larry - it is very easy to be friendly and compliant, it is much more inconvenient to love deeply. That was really the impetus to writing that last poem on my blog. A pure, honest love changes generations.
When people give love, exclusively to give it (not for recognition or returning a favor or building a stock pile of favors to call upon) the blessing resonates within the lives of the giver and receiver.
Jeff, love has made a deep impact in your life and sustained you when you felt alone. Love has made a transformational change in your heart. It is God's touch with His amazing fundemental character - love.
Annie World, what a vulnerable comment you have in the early glimpses of the morning. It is striking to be able to have a specific time when you know that you heard the door of your heart close. What a painful realization, a stunning revelation to ponder and ruminate. To look at the door and wonder, 'Did someone else close it...or did I really do it?" You are not alone in how you feel, about knowing that loving stopped coming and going.
Post a Comment
<< Home