I Love You All

What is your definition of love?

If you’re like most people, it depends on the situation. Different kinds of love at different times.

I have an acquaintance who seems to think all love is romantic love. That’s the way they act anyway. Every time I speak to or of a member of the opposite sex, the implication is that romantic love and/or something more salacious is involved. I don’t know if I’m supposed to encase myself in a bubble and stop interacting with the rest of the human race or what. I mean, there are ways to behave appropriately and ways not to … ways to dress modestly and ways not to. And I do tend to be outgoing and somewhat over-the-top, but I don’t think acting like a puritan schoolgirl is particularly required.

My preacher made an interesting and timely point Sunday.

“The purpose of life is to love God and to love others.”

Ha! The scripture reference he used was Luke 16:27-31, so it’s a little bit of an unusual paraphrase of the end of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Go look it up & read it.

Ninety-nine percent of the time when God reminds me that LOVE NEVER FAILS, he’s not talking about romantic love. And he’s really not talking about how I feeeeeel either. He’s telling me to be a friend, be helpful, take action, adjust my attitude, go out of my comfort zone to check on someone, drop my pride and get over myself and reach out, etc.

I say, “I love you” to my friends. Sue me. Society teaches us to hold back in romantic relationships and not be the first one to say it, like it’s a big power play or something.  The older I get, though, the less I care what all of you think & the more I care what God thinks. And while it may be up to misinterpretation or over-interpretation, I tend to believe if you feel it you should say it … romantic, platonic, somewhere in between, whatever. The other person usually needs to hear it. God says it never fails, so there you go.

I love you all.

J