Now This Is Love

Have you noticed it—the way we drop “love” throughout our day-to-day conversations? “I love that shirt!” “It was love at first sight.” “Wouldn’t you love to go there?” Love in this sense means having affection for something, a fondness if you will. This type of love is very fickle, dependent on circumstances and changing often.

The shirt goes out of style, and now we would never be seen wearing it. They don’t meet our expectations in some way and poof! that instant love is replaced by disdain or indifference. We grow older or circumstances change, and the place we must see becomes a place never to visit. Like most, I too casually drop this four-letter word into my conversations.

But the kind of love I long to radiate and receive has a vastly different look than mere temporary affection. This is a love we all desire. Some spend a lifetime looking for it. It may begin with three little words but must be completed in action (something I’m not always good at.)

This amazing love shows up in the light touch of sympathy and the strong embrace of welcome and good-bye. It is evident in the washing of dishes, the folding of clothes, and the building of shelter.

This love is reflected in the penned words of affirmation stuffed in lunch boxes or those spoken in a whisper: “I am proud of you.” It shines in the prose of a letter written to a distant one or delivered to another we’ve wronged.

This love is found in therapy and surgery waiting rooms, school conferences and activities, and relief centers in third-world countries.

It is holding a hand when tears flow or the high five of congratulations. It radiates from the bandaging of wounds, feeding the hungry, protecting the innocent.

This love is picking someone first just because they’ve always been last, sitting next to someone who usually eats alone, and sometimes, it is just saying one kind word. It is pacing the floor until the headlights pull into the drive, missing sleep to rock a sick babe, and serving the undeserved.

It is a love that speaks through gifts—but even louder if they are homemade, through a pat on the back, through just showing up.

Sometimes this love is painful to the recipient and the deliverer.

It is a love of doing, not just saying. This love is given freely, without condition, and at the heart of it is grace.

It is arms spread wide, hands nailed to a cross—the giving of all to save another. This love is Jesus Christ. It is “agape.” It is truly sacrificial love in action.

“Live your life with love, following the example of Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. He was a sacrificial offering that smelled sweet to God” (Ephesians 5:2, CEB).

Real love is so much more than just saying the words. How are you intentional about putting your love in action? How do you avoid falling into the pit of complacency—uttering empty words of promise? With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, this is a great time to put your love into action!

Join me at Faith Barista’s Thursday Jam and Love Unwrapped