What is Love?

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

         --Matthew 22:37

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”

         --Matthew 25:23

Often times the word ‘love’ is thrown around. Whenever we have a strong positive reaction to something we often claim to ‘love’ the bearer of good news. Yet, how often do we completely mean the word that is flowing so easily from our lips? How many people can we say that we really, truly love?

For me, I love my parents, my sister, cousins, grandparents, maybe even a few of my closest friends; but beyond that? Even further than that, how do I know when friendship has gone beyond simplicity, and become a deep love for another. Is it when I would cry for someone when they have died? Or when I start to enjoy their presence, and seek them out?

Where does true love begin?

Unfortunately, I don’t know if I can honestly say that I love one specific person. Throughout this whole summer a prevailing theme throughout books I have read, sermons I have heard, and scripture I have dissected has been love. Not just love, but love for the creater of the universe, and the giver of life.

Since our first moments in this world we have been commanded to love our Lord and Savior. But, this is not just any love, this a deep love. To be completely in love with Him, to the point where He is the only thing that we desire and long for.

I wish I could say that in my heart of hearts, he is the only one that I long for. That every moment of everyday is consumed with a longing to be in His presence, learn more about Him, and dissect his complex nature, to be in awe of His wondrous power.

However, as the days wear on, I am troubled by the thought that this may not be my true desire. Thoughts of the creator are replaced by thoughts of TV shows, books, websites, and any other distraction that can weasel its way in. I allow hours to pass in mindless, trivial pursuits. I look not to the future, but to the present, and what I want.

Instead of falling in love with my creator, I have fallen in love with the very thing that I should be in complete opposition to, the world. I only look to God when I think about what I need. I look for my security after I have died by making sure that I am “right” with God. I don’t really care about God, but only with what He can give me.

This was a warning that I got from a book I read just a week and a half ago. It warned me not to only love God for the gifts that he gives, but to love Him.

How am I to do this?

I feel as if I have no answer to this. I don’t know how to love God. I don’t know when I have fallen in love with God. Will it be the moment where I realize that I am in complete and utter dependence on Him, and cannot survive without Him? Or is it when I cannot ever have enough time with Him?

I want to be at the point where I can say that I love the Lord, my God with all my heart, soul and mind. I want there to be no doubt in my mind that I am serving Him with my entirety, and that when I finally reach heaven he will turn to me and say “Well done, good and faithful servant”.

I want God to be proud of me in the end. I don’t want my life to be wasted. I want to live in complete devotion to Him, giving my best to bring glory to his name. But is this even possible if I don’t love him with my whole being?

I would love to say that I am from now until my last breath on earth I will give all that I have to bring the kingdom to this earth. But, in all reality, this is impossible. There will be times where I mess up and will feel completely defeated in all attempts. Probably during these times, the last thing that I will do is look back to these pages and see that there will be hardship. However, just to know that pushing through, and allowing myself to anchor my feet on solid ground once again.

Now, I need to figure out how to fall in love. To fall in love with the one who gave me my life in the first place. How to make it so that every moment in spent in complete desperation for God. Is it something that I can do? Can I make it so that I desire Him more than life itself?