What Is Love?

If you're anything like me you're most likely sick and tired of seeing the word love thrown around like a pair of old sneakers over telephone wires (you ought no need to Google that). Now of course before getting too far in to this blog, the love I'm writing about here is that which would be classified as "romantic" love. Not the love you feel for family or friends, but the love that develops when you're in a relationship with a man or woman. As of the writing of this blog there are around 1.23 BILLION results generated from Google for the question "What is love?" Now suffice it to say that many of those results relate to songs and movie titles, but the fact remains that this question still results in that many responses. I mean is it really that hard to discover what true love is? Is it possible to identify real love? Is Love relative and only identifiable when it "hits you"? Can you have love at first sight? Can love be lost with as much, or as little effort, with which it was found?

Well, the way I see it, love is much simpler and yet more complicated then the way our society has portrayed it. My opinion is likely to go against the grain of that which is usually accepted but that's ok. I don't believe that love is some kind of mushy emotional feeling that you get when you lock eyes, lips, hands, or hips with someone else. Love isn't some fly by night feeling that sweeps you off of your feet and takes you on a ride down cherry blossom highway. You won't know you're in love because you can feel it deep down in your "soul". You won't know you're in love because every fiber of your being is screaming it to you. To put it mildly, if you haven't had the chance to think about it rationally, you aren't in love.

What many people experience and call love is nothing more then inflated infatuation. You get drawn in by their:

• Looks
• Personality
• Mannerisms
• Status
• Accent (yes accent), etc. 

It could very well be a combination of some or all of the above. The problem is that ones feelings are an inappropriate method with which to determine whether or not they are in love. Allowing your feelings to determine whether or not you are in love is like asking a blind man behind the wheel of your car if he knows where he's going.

True love should consist of the following traits:

• A willingness to put up with a host of foolishness
• An understanding that what's yours is yours and what's not isn't.
• A willingness to be humble
• A cool head
• Looks to do good
• Stays away from evil
• Is honest
• Won't give up

Now I won't say that I'm some kind of love guru; again, this is the way I see it. I believe that there would be much less heart ache and longer lasting relationships if people stopped using the word love as a means to an end. Everyone wants to be accepted by someone, and there is no greater feeling of acceptance then that which you gain when someone says they love you. On the flip side of that, there is no greater feeling of rejection or betrayal then to have someone you love, or who said they loved you, betray you. For this reason, I believe, many people turn their backs on the idea of love and grow callous towards it. They've been hurt before and would rather indulge themselves in superficial "meaningless" encounters, then to truly go all out and experience true love because of the potential heart ache that could occur.

 ***The Boiling Point***

If you are accustomed to a counterfeit you won't be able to identify the genuine. False love has saturated our society and made it nigh impossible to determine actual love from inflated feelings of infatuation. If you wan to know what love really is then cast your eyes upon Jesus. His love knows no bounds and is a wonderful example to us as to how we are to love. Scripture says that God is love. We see that love in the life of Christ, a life that was lived for others. A life that was bent on bringing happiness and truth into the hearts of the desperate. I challenge you reader to look to the life of Christ and that you may learn what true love really is.