Never Stop

What is it "LOVE"? I'm still trying to figure out exactly what and how to explain it. I'm not sure it is a "something." Is it more than a feeling, or emotion? Is it necessary? I'm sure you've heard this "God is Love." I believe that's true, but what does that mean? How can that be? Is that just something to make people feel good? We use the word love for just about everything nowadays, and surely we don't Love chick fill a the same way we love our friends, parents, siblings.

 Let's start by looking at the word love, in the English language we only have one word for "Love" why is that? If Love is so important then why don't we have a better way of saying it? Let's look at the different kinds of love one could have. The Greeks had six different words for love:

1. Eros, or passion. This one is often related to a sexual kind of passion. I personally don't think it has to be related to sex because you can and should be passionate about other people, friends, and family. But you can also be passionate about things, like sports, cars, work. But you have to be careful with this type because you can become too passionate, where it becomes an obsession, and sometimes things we are obsessed with can control us. So "Eros" Is a passionate type of Love.

2. Philia, or deep friendship. This one is self-explanatory. "Deep friendship" this one might be my favorite. The Greeks said this one "was about showing loyalty to your friends, sacrificing for them, as well as sharing your emotions with them." If you don't have this kind of Love you need to find it. So, Philia is Deep friendship type of love.

3. Ludus or playful love, this type of love is like the kind of love children have for each other, but also could be the type of love adults who just meet each other and are "flirting." So it's like a joking around kind of Love. Ludus is a playful type of Love.

4. Agape, or love for everyone. This is the most common, or should be. This is a selfless kind of love, gift of oneself to others. Was a love that you extended to all people, whether family members or distant strangers. Agape was later translated into Latin as Caritas, which is the origin of our word “charity.” So, agape is the love we should show to everyone.

5. Pragma, or longstanding love. Greeks use it mostly for married couples who had been married for a long time. "Pragma was about making compromises help the relationship work over time and showing patience and tolerance." So, is a longstanding love.

6. Philautia, or love of the self. This one can be bad or good. It is good to love oneself. But that can be taken too far where it becomes more of a worship of oneself. So, Philautia is the love of oneself.

Now we know the different kinds of love. But still what is it? How can we love? Why does it Matter? What is Love? Love is not "baby don't hurt me..." Love is more. Love is more than a feeling, more than an emotion. I'm sure we can all come up with our own definitions of love. But if you look up the actual definition you will find "Willing the good of the beloved" That is pretty basic and isn't that hard. What is best for those how you Love. But still is that all that love is? Wanting what is best? That is the start, but Love also is giving all you can to someone, (Which "all" is different based on the relationship) I can't really find words to describe Love, but “God is Love."

How can we Love? Something I'm still trying to figure out, loving someone means wanting what is best for them. Loving someone is giving all you have to them (in the way you are called to). "Inconveniencing yourself willingly for someone else."

Why does it matter? It matters because Love is EVERYTHING. We are all searching, we are all longing, for Love. Not just love, but Love real authentic Love. "Love; it will not betray you Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free be more like the man you were made to be." We are all looking for a Love that incorporates all the different kinds of love. Love is the reason for everything. Without Love, we have nothing.

The only place you will find that perfect Love is with God. God is Love. Real authentic Love. God is all of the Loves combined. God gave us his son, Jesus. Jesus gave us his life. Jesus died for you. He died for you personally. If you were the only one alive he would have done it. God loves us so much, when he created us he knew we were going to sin, God knows everything he is God! He knew we were going to hurt him, But out of Love for us, for you, for me, he created us.

If you want to know how to Love look at the cross. God gave us his only son to die for us, to be killed for us, just so we could have a chance to be with him. Loving means giving all you can to the one being loved, and then continuing to Love them even if you don't get that same love back. God doesn't demand us to love him in return, that's not a condition for him to love you, yeah he wants you to, and he desires you too. But "one can only desire love" you can't demand it, love is a free choice. The cool thing about Gods love for us is he shows us every day how much he loves us. And we don't have to do anything to get, it's free!

Love can hurt. We hurt God every day, to truly Love someone you have to love with all you got. The song by one republic "I lived" one of the lines from that song is "I hope that you fall in love and it hurts so bad" if you truly give all you have then chances are you are going to get heart broken, whether this with a boyfriend/girlfriend, or just with a close friend. Maybe you haven't been hurt by a friend before, that's awesome. But it's going to come, and if it hurts. Good job, because you were giving the most you know how to give.

God deserves all you have, if you can give that to him you won't be let down. He loves you way more than you can Love him. Love your Friends and family like Christ Loves you.
Start Loving, and Never stop.
\Go With God

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