The Reestablishment of Love.

I want to start out by asking: "What does love mean to you?" Think about the answer before too many thoughts pile into your mind, and then take the main thought and keep it until I'm done writing this entry and see if your meaning of 'love' lines up.

To me, the word 'love' takes on two meanings: 1) A relationship in which two people share a common feeling for one another, and 2) The platonic type of love - the love for your mother, father, sibling and so forth. It wasn't until I became a Christian did I realize the true meaning of love and what God intends it to mean. With this blog, whether you're a Christian or not, hopefully the real meaning of love will come across in a clearer way.

Obviously my definition of love has always been a physical type of love - the X's and the O's - but never the type of love that I can look at someone and say to myself "I have no idea who they are, what they've done or where they've been... but I love them." Age, race, and gender, these things don't exist when love is applied. The application of love is not a respecter of people. Just like God. According to WikiAnswers, the Bible refers to love "approximately 311 times". With that stated, most Christian's know the verses 1 Corinthians 13 where it speaks of love, but my favorite part is at the end when Paul wraps it up by stating:

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Have you ever wondered what Paul meant by this? It's taken a lot of thought, but an epiphany came to me one night while in the car with my boyfriend. Our conversation was on the subject of love and what God has intended for this word. My thought was:

"I think God has intended to show us that He knew that love is difficult for us. Love is this feeling that is supposed to be given to anyone without thought; something that is not based off physical attraction. God obviously knew that this was to be one of the hardest struggles as man. We get mad as we're in traffic because someone is driving entirely too slow for our liking, so we do things that are completely un-Christian. We're fully human, it's just what we do. God has set out to show us that if we show love, the real true love that He has reiterated 311 times, then we're really running after His heart and desiring what He wants in our lives."

My thoughts started out as a jog, then they turned into a full-fledged sprint. I wanted to turn to the next person I saw and scream that I loved them. Of course I didn't do this, because I didn't want the awkward stares or the cops called, but what I did do was change my outlook. I did this entire reboot of the word love in my "brain dictionary" and reestablished it as something that doesn't limit itself. I am to love the homeless, the drug addict, the Jehovah's witness that shows up at my door, the guy who cuts me off in traffic and the person on the phone who has endless questions. My heart is to be God's heart. My heart is to reach out to every single person without judgement or a second thought. That's what He has intended all this time.

I don't want to be taken wrong in this blog post. When I became a Christian, I knew that my definition of love had to change, but I never quite put it into action. It took sometime but what it came down to was the act of defrosting my heart to realize God's meaning and to have a reestablishment of love.

I have a shirt that I wear sometimes that boldly says: "Love God, Love Others", and it now feels great to know this is what I am literally doing.

Now, what does love mean to you?