Love

Our culture has lost all concept of "love." I was listening to the radio yesterday, and these lyrics grabbed my attention...

..."she even cooks me pancakes, and alka seltzer when my tummy aches. If that ain't love, then I don't know what love is...I love the way she calls my phone. She even got her very own ringtone. If that ain't love, then I don't know what love is."

The fact that you've assigned your girlfriend her own ringtone is love??? I would say this group is right when they say that they don't know what love is, because love certainly is NOT having your own ringtone.

I could rattle off 1 Corinthians to attempt to define love: "Love is patient, love is kind..." but even those deep words have lost meaning. A speaker on the radio the other day really hit the nail on the head. We don't tell the people we love that we love them as much anymore, because we also love tacos, we love Starbucks, we love the weather, we love our favorite song, we love our pets... we have cheapened love so much that when we try to express the deepness of our feelings, we can't do it. Love, once the most valuable word, has depreciated in value.

I could try to define love... It's sacrifical. It's putting the other so much above yourself, you'd be willing to give your most valuable possession, your life, for them. It's sticking with them when things get bad. It's sticking with them when things get very bad. It's the highs and the lows. It's pure joy. It's vulnerability. It's risk. It's worth it. It's commitment. It's forever. It's a continual decision. It's a continual effort. I could try to define love... but I'd fail. It's a concept so much deeper than our human attempts at communication and definition.

I'll leave the definition to God. 1 Corinthians 13 in the Message translation defines love as this:

"Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always 'me first,'
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end."