L.O.V.E.

There are about a million or so songs in this world that attempt to define love. Since the dawn of time the world "love" seems to have haunted all of humanity. We revolve our lives around attaining love, keeping love, being betrayed by love, etc. Love is used to advertise, to win over people, and even to blackmail people. We see it in the media every day and love is loosely portrayed in our entertainment.

What is love after all?

If I were to look at a few songs from the past I would find some lines such as:

"L is for the way you look at me, O is for the only one I see, V is very very extraordinary, E is even more than anyone that you adore.." by Nat King Cole

Or perhaps a man with the LOVE in his name, Samuel Lover, has something to say:

"Come live in my heart, and pay no rent."

I believe that the best description of love comes not from something that has attempted to capture the essence of love in the past hundred years, but from a verse that was written in a letter to the church in Corinth over 2000 years ago.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
First Corinthians (A letter to the church in Corinth) in the New Testament

From this, I derive that love is an action, not a feeling. Nowhere in this statement does it say that love is a sexy night after some drinks or love is a marriage proposal.

This letter treats love as if it is an actual tangible thing that people can treat correctly or incorrectly. If there is love, then this is it. This does not imply that this is romantic love, but so many (including myself at times) interprets it solely as the definition for romantic love.

The truth is that romantic love fades. The gooey sappy lovey-dovey period ends and then life begins. Many relationships do not make it past this point because they are not committed to making it work. They do not take the matter of love seriously. But if they were to use this slight example of what love can look like and choose daily to make their love as it is depicted, they would be doing a better job loving their significant other than they were during the sappy period!

I believe that love is a choice. We wake up every morning and we can allow the things in life to affect our capability to love one another or we can wake up in the morning and choose to love the people around us regardless of what happens. It requires being selfless. Love is hard! Love is worth it.

The top love quotes on many sites are about selflessness. People understand this concept. People do not put this concept into action. (This includes myself!)

I am going to try to become a better lover-of-my-neighbors. I am going to try to truly live out this piece of scripture that has been with me since 12 years of age. In fact, my Valentine's day letter contained this piece of scripture and explained how I walked this out in my day to day life. It was very nice, but I believe I can be more, love more, do more.