08 Aug

Love is a doing word

Published by Loshnee

I believe that love is the easiest and most powerful tool that a person can use in order to change any situation. I read a quote a while back that said "love is when the other persons happiness is more important than your own". Like I do whenever I come across anything profound I began to think about what that actually meant. I wondered if I could ever get to a point in life where I would feel that kind of love. I have always heard about love and being loved but the only time I ever opened myself up to feel it was when I adopted my Jack Russell and to be honest I think the reason why it was so easy was because she loved me back so purely. I mean loving someone more than you love yourself is pretty much as selfless as it gets especially in a time such as the present. Everywhere you look there is more disunity than there is unity. There are more and more families that are torn apart due to stubbornness and silly arguments that can be solved with a simple "I am sorry". Friendships are broken more than they are made. In fact, its easier to lose a friend right now than it is to make one. The word divorce is thrown around more than a cricket ball in a test match and all because people have lost the essence of what it means to truly love someone.

There is one thing I enjoy more than anything else now that I am adulting and that is attending weddings. I love weddings, any wedding. The colors, the food, the company, the scouting of all the single guys at the function, the music, the dancing and most importantly the coming together of two people in front of God and everyone that they love gets me extremely excited. I was lucky to attend two weddings over the last three months or so that really left me thinking about love. The first wedding I went to was with a friend of mine, she was the pastor officiating the ceremony and she invited me to go with her.The first thing that caught my attention at this wedding was the venue. I absolutely loved the venue, it was so pretty. As I expected, the word at the wedding was powerful and thought provoking, I sat there very proud of my friend grasping on to what she was saying to the couple getting married. There was one statement that she made that stuck out for me and kept me thinking for a couple of days after the wedding. She reminded the couple that they should love each other beyond what they were feeling at the time. I was taken aback by what she said. Love is more than a feeling! It doesn't get more powerful than this I thought. Two months later I attended a wedding of a friend very special to my heart. This friend of mine is the epitome of a great friend. She is one of those people who never fails to make a bad day better and she is always there to listen, no matter how absurd the situation may be. Naturally, we were all eager to get together and celebrate the new journey that she decided to embark on with her lovely husband. They are the most beautiful couple I have come across recently. Their love for each other is so pure and so precious. The pastor officiating their ceremony spoke about love being a verb. Needless to say, I was all ears listening to what he said. He told them that they must always remember to take care of one another because that's what love is. Its taking care of one another even when they don't feel like it.

There are very few moments that leave me speechless, correlating these two sermons was one of those moments. Ultimately what this means is that loving someone is a selfless act, its more than a feeling or an emotion. Love is an action. If you attend church then you would have come across a pastor talking about agape love. I researched agape love recently and found this definition "agape love is the highest form of love, the love of God for man and of man for God. Agape love embraces a universal, unconditional love that transcends, that serves regardless of circumstances". After reading that, I was not only speechless but I was breathless too and this is why. The bible is very clear about love and one of the most powerful reasons why is because, God is love. God is agape love! He loves us beyond all our imperfections. He loves us even when we don't love ourselves. He loves us because He is love. Everything about God oozes love and till today no one has shown us love greater than that of God because His love gave us eternity which we find in John 3.16 "for God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life". The thing that really got to me though was the commandment that says that we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves. God expects us to love one another with that unconditional love that we find from him. See, the way I see it, it should be in our nature to love because it is Gods nature to love. If we are willing to receive love from God then we must be able to give that love back to others. So what does it mean to love beyond what we feel and how is love a doing word? I believe that firstly love is being able to forgive even when the other person doesn't deserve forgiveness - life has taught me that you can't love when you harbor unforgiveness in your heart. You cant love and be bitter at the same time. Don't be shallow about love, shallow love will cause you to walk away from the simplest of situations. Love is being compassionate - have empathy for others and what they are going through. Love is a sacrifice - when you love people, you go beyond your ability to help them when times are tough. It means, being there not because of what you're gaining but because of what you are giving. Lastly, to love means that you love by what you do not what you say. Promises are easily broken and actions are never forgotten.

I probably left you wondering what this all means and how it comes together? Here's the thing, I longed for one thing my whole life and that was to feel loved and to feel like I mattered. Have you ever heard the song; "there's got to be more to life" - well, that was my theme song. There had to be more. There was no way this was going to cut it. I deserved to be loved and I was going to look for it until I found it. About three weeks ago, I was struggling with this feeling again and for the life of me I couldn't shake off not being able to feel loved. I wanted that feeling and I wanted to feel it there and then. I had a vent session with a friend of mine who reminded me of Gods love. She told me that if I cant see how much God loves us then I wouldn't be able to see anything else. I brushed her off and told her that she doesn't understand because she hasn't been through what I have been through. A couple days later our church began our mid year fast that they termed "fast-forward". I prayed the night before the fast and I was not mincing my words with God. My prayer was simple and direct, this fast was going to be the fast that I experience Him and His love like a daughter experiences her fathers love and as I asked so I received. Monday past and nothing. Tuesday came and my Jack Russell (one of the few beings I genuinely love more than anything else in this world) got very ill and was taken to the hospital due to a colon infection. I was taken aback by this situation but I pulled myself together and went to church and praised and worshiped like never before. I was fighting for my experience and I wasn't stopping till I got it. Wednesday, the third day of our fast, and the day I experienced my God like never before. I was not only reminded of his love but I experienced and felt it as well. It was overflowing, it was perfect, it was everything I dreamt of and more. It was that fathers love I yearned for. It was that acceptance I was looking for. It was that hug that I so badly needed. It was the love of God in His full form!

What does this have to do with you? Perhaps you like me, doesn't know what its like to have someone love you unconditionally. Perhaps like me, you also feel like no one is protecting you and that you are alone. Perhaps you also desire to know love or perhaps you are in a marriage where you keep hearing the divorce word one to many times or maybe life has just punched you around so many times that you have forgotten what its like to love. Well, here's a reminder that you are not alone, God is with you. Sometimes though, you need to come to the realisation that love is more that what you feel, its what you know, its what you do and its how you act. Its knowing that your husband/wife is God purposed. Its knowing that friendship is worth it. Its knowing that God loves you beyond all you can imagine and that nothing that anyone says could ever change that. Its knowing that God gave His only son in the hope that one day you will love Him. Its knowing that actions matter and not words. It took me a long time to come to this realisation because it was hard to accept anyone could love me if the people who were meant to love me didn't but now that I know and I have experienced the love of God I find that its easier to love others, to accept others and to let love be a doing word in my life too. Let love be a verb in your life and love beyond what you are feeling - you will lose the anger and the sadness eventually but don't let that make you lose the person too. Show someone how much they mean to you even if its just a sorry, a foot rub, a good conversation or a hug. Choose love, choose love over and over and over, without pause, without a doubt and in a heartbeat; keep choosing love

Until next time - let love be the only weapon you use in battle

Loshnee