what is love?

On her blog, my friend Shannon posted an entry about love and asked us to respond to what we think love is. I thought this was a great topic and decided to copy her. Thanks Shannon!

In the Bible it says that charity or love "suffereth long and is kind, envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, ...is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil..." (1 Corinthians 13) It also says "And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." I think these are powerful statements.

We can love things and people. Of course, it is our relationships with people that bring us real happiness and help us to grow. Love can be felt for our spouse, children, parents, siblings, friends, extended family, neighbors and even strangers, but the intensity of those feelings is different.

I think in its truest form, love is caring more about someone else's welfare than about your own. It is focussing on the good in someone, rather than the bad. Love means we try to withhold judgment and help and serve and bless and lift up, rather than criticize and tear down. It is remembering that everyone we meet... friend, family member, neighbor, stranger is a child of God and has divinity within them.

I shared this in Shannon's post, but I love this quote from C.S. Lewis from his essay "The Weight of Glory". ... I"m including just a little more of the quote here.

"It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor's glory should be laid daily on my back.... It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror or corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one of other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities ... that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. ... It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit."

Wow! That always makes me reflect on how I treat others. For Christians, we have been taught to love our neighbors as ourselves... to try and act as Jesus would. I have a long way to go, but I'm trying to show more love and to be less selfish. I think that, for me, prayer and service are two keys. I learn to love those that I pray for and help/serve.

In another book I read, Expecting Adam, by Martha Beck, she tells of a time when she was jogging and saw what she thought was a piece of quartz. She leaned over to pick it up and realized it was just styrofoam, garbage. This caused her to reflect. The object hadn't changed from first glance until she picked it up; just her perception of the object changed. She started to think that this was true of people too. She decided to try to see the beauty and good in others. She was soon in tears because as she looked at people she saw such beauty. She writes "If we saw people as they really are, the beauty would overwhelm us." Few, if any of us, spend our time really seeing the good in others, but at times, I have had brief glimpses of the goodness of others and it is overwhelming and miraculous.

So, any thoughts? What do you love? What is love, to you?