Saturday, the Fifth Week of Lent

   Without love I think life would be unbearable.  I believe that we literally must have love to survive.  However, we also cheapen love.  We not only say that we love God and our families we also say that we love ice cream or steak.  We attach the word love to so many things that it loses it’s true meaning.  Things we like become things we love in our eyes.  We need to differentiate between what we love and what we like.  Otherwise love loses its’ impact and importance in our life.

   Part of the problem is that the English language doesn’t have words to express the various types of love.  We are pretty much stuck with either like or love.  Of course we can like something in different degrees but that still doesn’t help us when it comes to expressing love in the way God loves us or in the way we are to love God and neighbor.

   The love we need to foster is what the Greeks call agape or selfless love.  This is the love of which Jesus spoke, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15: 13).  Would you lay down your life another?  Your spouse or children?  It’s not uncommon for those in battle to lay down their life for those with whom they serve.  However, I think there are very few circumstances in which we would choose to die for someone else.

   Certainly you would not lay down your life for a bowl of your favorite ice cream or a thick juicy steak.  This is my point about the misuse of the word love in the English language.  We have watered down its’ meaning to the point that it no longer has the importance or commitment that true love should have.

   God’s love for us in unlike any other love.  It is eternal, unconditional, perfect in every way.  There is no end to it and never any lessening of it.  Even those who choose to ignore God are still loved by Him. There will come a day when this world ends.  The water will stop flowing in the rivers, the winds will stop blowing, and the world as we know will cease to exist.  Still, God’s love will be with us in strength and perfection.

   Regardless of our current circumstances or what may come in the future the one thing, the only thing, we can truly depend upon is God’s love for us.  Even though our love is not perfect God asks to love Him as He loves us; endlessly and fully.  During these last few days of Lent let’s strive to better understand what real love is and return to God the absolute best of our love.  The kind of love that would cause us to lay down our life for Him as Jesus laid down His life for us.