Glorious Beautiful Mystery

note to reader:
This isn't a very polished piece. It takes you on a road from Romantic love to Selfless love and back to Romantic love. ...you'll see when you read it.  ...When I wrote that "I have experienced love," I transitioned because I was referring to loving people even when it's inconvenient, not a romantic love.
Hope you enjoy it : )
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


What is love?

Is it attraction?
Is it a good feeling?
Is it desire?
Is it comfort?
Is it security?
Is it affirmation?

Love isn't any of these things. These things aren't necessarily bad, but they're not love.

Do we really crave love in life?
Is it really the definition of love that we search after and wait so long for?

Maybe we really just want someone to flatter us and be entertained by us.

Or maybe we want someone to desire us and comfort us and make us feel secure.

Do we really want love? Do we really know what love is?

I feel as if I have experienced love. And it's not what I always thought it was.
Love is a choice to care.

Not to care if a person is simply happy or sad or insecure or having a bad day.
Not to care if a person is getting everything they want or just some of it.

But to care if a person is safe and protected and provided for.
To care if a person is well fed and healthy.

Love is not satisfying someone's every desire. Love is not making someone happy because you can. Love is not simply getting along well with someone. Love is not simply not getting into arguments.

Love is knowing what's best and giving that to that person.
Love is a choice to care.

If you know Jesus, you know he loved. He cared. He knew what was best for us and pursued it. He didn't rule and reign on Earth because he knew that's not really what we needed. He knew discomfort in the moment for us was of little consequence to the issue of our debt being paid, that we might be set free from the bondage of sin.

...Comfort, Security, Satisfaction, Success are all things that we may desire here on Earth.
But the difference between Heaven and Hell is not whether we felt those things on Earth or not.
Jesus came to save the world. He wanted people to stop ending up in Hell. And the way to Hell was not whether people were living in comfort on Earth or not.
Jesus did not come to make things easier on us. He did not come to make things look prettier for us.
He came to secure our hearts.
He came to secure our choices.
Who were we going to believe in?
What were we going to believe in?
What were we going to live for?

Are we going to live for the pleasures of life?
Or the things of God?

What are the things of God, you might ask?
In lay-men's terms, Good Character.

Will we choose to be trustworthy, honest, kind, hard-working, patient, willing to go the extra mile, selfless?
Will we genuinely care about the hearts of others?
Will we seek the best for them even when they don't seek it for themselves?
Will we not be swayed by what's popular?
Will we stick to what's best?
To not envy, or boast, or be proud. to not be rude, or self-seeking, or easily angered.
To look deeper than the surface and fight for the real needs of others. Even when it's inconvenient.

To know what Love is, to recognize it, we must have good character.
Good character in a person is the foundation of Love in that person.

If we are searching for Love, we have to first search out good character.

Sometimes it's so easy to forget what love really is.
Or maybe it's just so easy to separate love of the opposite sex with the loving of your neighbor.
Why do these things have to be so different from each other?
We shouldn't let the allure of romance so quickly redefine what love is.

Don't we want someone who will love us well despite being attracted to us or even "benefiting" from us?
We want someone who will love us even when they didn't feel very entertained, or got an ego boost, or were told how good looking they were.
We want someone who loves who we are and from there, everything else.
When a person knows how to love you before they receive romantic affirmation from you...suddenly there really are no strings attached.

Love is the choice to care.
To care about more than what will benefit you.

Can you imagine knowing someone like that?
someone who cares about you despite how their benefitting.

Think about it.

and ...Do you want to be that kind of person?