Love is an Action Word
February bombards our senses with all things red and pink, candy and urgings to buy your love the perfect bouquet for just $19.99 online or $29.99 including the glass vase, taking love to new heights of commercialism right on the heels of society’s commercialized Christmas celebrations! Love is an everyday topic. Love is more than a feeling or a gift, it is an action. Think about that. We feel love for others, but love without action isn’t much. Love is patient; love is kind… It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. In 1 Corinithians 13 we hear the definition of the actions of love.
God’s love is perfect. He loves each of us, yes, each of us fully and completely. Every single person is His precious child. None is greater in His eyes. It is easy (mostly) for us to love those is our lives that are closest to us.
If we take a true inventory, I bet we can each name some that we look at and have to be reminded of the truth that a certain person – a coworker, estranged family member, homeless person on the street or someone who is just a little too different than we are or has different ideas or values than we do – is just as precious and important to God as we are.
What a challenge! In these divisive times, we are inundated with negativity and hate towards groups or people who have a different viewpoint than we do. It has become the norm to take sides and look at those who have different ideas as “less than”. Tolerance and agreeing to disagree seem like "long ago" talk.
When I drive to Michael and Alex’s house, I get off the interstate at a place where people who are homeless take turns standing and hoping for donations while cars wait at the red light. Most cars change lanes to avoid getting to close and I suspect having to meet eyes with a person willing to stand in the frigid weather for hours at a time hoping for a hand out. A few months ago, while waiting for valet parking in the foyer of a building where we had attended an event, a man who had nowhere to go to stay warm during the freezing temperatures that night. The foyer we were standing in was less than 10 x 10. Most people stood as close as they could to a wall and didn’t engage this man. They worked hard to keep their gaze away from his eyes. I imagined how "less than" they feel. People all around, but these individuals felt invisible to them.
Close your eyes for a moment. Think about that person on the street corner, in the valet waiting space or that coworker or political opposite you find hard to like. Picture that person holding Jesus’s right hand and you holding Jesus’s left hand. See Jesus smile at both of you. Pretty powerful image. Are you going to tell Jesus the reasons he should let go of the other person’s hand?
What people in your life do you have to be reminded that he or she (or them) is (are) a precious child of God…equally important as you are (remember that Jesus holding hands with both of you image)?
Can you include yourself in those who are loved? How do you bring to your mind and body and spirit that YOU are precious, important and special? Some days it is hard. I have many days when I feel as though I don’t do much right. life seems overwhelming or I’m sure I don’t measure up. I disappoint myself.
We need to be WARRIORS for LOVE! Love in our relationships, love to those whose lives share our life path, love to those who hear our speech and see our words on social media, love to the unlovable and love toward ourselves.
In 1 Corinthians 13: 4 – 7 Paul outlines the nature of love, and through his words, highlights our shortcomings as humans all the while identifying the kind of Christ like love to which we are called. Love is patient, Love is kind. These two are pretty obvious, then Paul goes on to show us what we often struggle with.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, 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.
Drive the point home for yourself by putting in your name everywhere the word love is or is referenced:
Jane is patient, Jane is kind. Jane does not envy, Jane does not boast, Jane is not proud. 5 Jane does not dishonor others, Jane is not self-seeking, Jane is not easily angered, Jane keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Jane does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 Jane always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
What if we approached all those around us and ourselves as God sees each of us? Simple. We are all the same. Even the friend who shares the political posts that are the polar opposite of what you believe. Even your office mate who Drives. You. Crazy.
What if we just smiled and nodded at the person on the street looking for help and said, “I’m sorry I can’t help right now.”? What if you handed him or her a dollar and said, “I wish I could help more.”? Acknowledging their value as a human is a great place to start. What if we held our tongues from gossiping and talking down about that office mate? What if we scrolled by the post and enjoyed what we love about that friend?
It is easier to think of the ways you can act on those feelings of love with friends, neighbors and significant others. You don’t have to like that office mate or wild social media postmaster, we just don’t have to find the enemy in them. Explore the variety of ways you can share love. Perhaps you wish peace, safety, wellness, happiness, protection. We have a whole arsenal of ways to share love.
Be that love warrior in our upside down, divisive world. Shine love. Do love. Speak love. Take the everyday tasks and events in your life as a serious spot to act in love. Welcome, envelop and cover the people in your life with little pieces of warmth that they’ll use in their hearts to make a memory quilt that covers them in love. Something to pull up around them when they need it most. Something to remind them of their value.
