Love

Love is confusing. It’s tainted, twisted, and feared. This world takes it and makes it everything it’s not, leaving it a mystery. A mystery to be sought after, sometimes for a lifetime.

Love keeps no record, demands no ROI.
Love loves regardless.
Love seeks to love, not just in response.
Love takes nothing into account before loving.
Love is overwhelming.
Love is all encompassing.
Love has nothing to do with ourselves.
Love is selfless.

God is Love   —   Who hasn’t heard that? But who of us know and believe what this means just by hearing it? For me, it’s taken life experiences (good and bad), heartache, joy, mistakes, triumphs and everything in between just to crack the surface on God “being” Love, and Love “being” God.

These last few weeks, wrestling with God on some things, have taught me that the very beginning of love and how we should grasp love is selflessness. You can “Love” someone with your feelings, your lust, and your desire to be loved back by them, but that isn’t love.

God is love because of his level of selflessness. To give His Son… Selfless. To forgive and cast your sins “as far as the east is from the west” Selfless. To Love us more than anyone can, or will, and never get much of anything from us in return… Selfless.

I’ve grown up trying to be loved, show love, prove love. But I’ve unknowingly kept selfishness before all of it. I’ve thought of myself as selfless – helping, serving, giving – but as it turns out, I wasn’t so selfless after all. Somewhere in my heart I did much of it to get some sort of return.

Seek your heart, ask for true love to be revealed to you, and enjoy the freedom true love gives.
If you’re looking for a role model, an example – God is Love. 1 John 4:8

**1 of 4 Advent thoughts written during trying times in December 2013