Over the past few months, I've learned alot about love. In the process I would write down my thoughts so I could have something to look back on with the problems in life made me forget. I scribbled this down a couple months ago and I thought I'd share it here. If you have anything to add, please do so.. this is an infinite topic anyway.
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I am so thankful to God for giving me a deeper understanding of the nature of Love.
Some of these understandings or revelations He delivered to me years ago but it's easy to forget while struggling through the tribulations of life. Thank you God for reminding me and connecting these things within my heart.
Paul gives us some of the best attributes and qualities of Love in Corinthians, but the nature of Love still eludes me at times.
It's easy to fall into the old "Love is a feeling" thing but that diminishes it's power.
Love is not an emotion or feeling.
While Love does have a whole host of feelings and emotions bound to it in all sorts of combinations and flavors, it can't been classified as any one.
For instance, I know Love can cause physical sensations like butterflies in the belly, goose bumps on the skin, a quickening of the heart, or a tingling over the whole body, but those are just physical reactions to Love.
On the emotion side, we can feel joyful Love, heart warming Love, painful aching Love, anguishing Love, and a deep all consuming Love that overwhelms all the emotions and senses. But, again, these are all just reactions or 'symptoms' of Love.
Another thing is that Love defies all other properties of emotions, feelings, or, if you really want to get deep,all other known forces in the universe.
For example, every emotion, feeling, or known force needs to be fed in some way. To remain happy, you must feed that happiness with constant stimuli like positive thoughts, uplifting music, affirmations, etc. But, as we all know, there is a limit. Some external force or situation can easily turn off that feeling. Same goes with anger. If you don't keep feeding it, it simply dies out to a low resentment... we usually can't muster the energy to maintain it and, in some cases, we simply forget what we were even angry about in the first place.
Love, on the other hand, has this very peculiar and awesome property that the more you give it away freely, the more you have to give. Not only do you, in most cases, receive that Love back from others, it simply grows exponentially within us as we pour it out. That's mind boggling if you really think about it. No other force that we know of has that ability. It defies all laws of nature.
Also, think of this, if Love were to be removed from our world tomorrow, what do you think would happen?
I think the world would completely unravel.. and quickly. We would turn on each other like wild animals. There would be no mercy for anyone or anything.
We would rip each other apart. And this goes for every creature on Earth. Motherly love would go right out the window, in fact, Mother's would eat there young.
Herds, flocks, packs, prides, etc would disintegrate into slashing, biting, clawing, masses of flesh and blood.
All this over the extraction of a simple emotion or feeling? I don't think so.
Love is a power all it's on. While science continues to ignore it at the greatest power in the universe, I know the truth and I'll cling to it with all my heart. Love is that power that flows directly from our God that binds us, protects us, and shows us joy and compassion that simply cannot be fully understood. It is truly undefinable. When we try, we only accomplish to diminish it. It is to be experienced, not explained.
And when you try to analyze it and study it, it is like one of those infinity mirrors from the 70's. It keeps going and going beyond your ability to perceive it. It makes perfect sense that God is Love. They are both infinite and undefinable.
Love, like God, simply is. No definition or explanation. And I don't need one. For a skeptical, critical, logical, analyzer like me, that is rare.
I once thought that maybe Love was like an infinite diamond. Every facet is an example of Love. The Love for a son or daughter. The Love for a spouse. The Love for brothers and sisters. The Love for friends. The Love for your dogs and cats. The Love of nature. The Love of beauty. The Love of art and music. The facets and examples of Love just go on and on. And if that diamond were measurable it still wouldn't encompass the Love that our Savior has for us. If I were to be able to feel the full measure of God's Love for me, my heart would explode.
I remember having that thought around February of 2007 then driving to Atlanta the next day. While on I-20 somewhere around Villa Rica, I was pondering the awesomeness of God and suddenly I felt His presence (rare but so wonderful). I was feeling particularly down and lonely during this time because my good friend Franky (my dog) had been tragically killed just a few weeks before. So, here God was letting me know He was there so I asked Him to please hold me tight and pour on as much Love as I could handle. Whoa! I started tingling from head to toe and a flood of emotions (and tears) erupted from me. I was barely able to pull over. I sat there for about 20 minutes feeling this overwhelming divine 'hug'. I was humbled and exalted all the same time. When it was over, I had to fight down the urge to jump out of my car and flag down other commuters to tell them how awesome my God was and that they had access to this too! I called my former wife, Suzi, but all she heard was a bunch of words that didn't make any sense interspersed with crying and nose blowing. I was a joyful blubbering mess. Quick note: I don't recommend doing this while driving 70 and late for work. You won't care about your responsibilities. Speaking of which, I was under heavy attack by the enemy that entire day but there was nothing he could do to diminish the experience. But, he did definitely tried.
I experienced God's presence and overwhelming Love again under very different circumstances very recently. Even though I was so far out of His will and experiencing guilt, shame, anger, and pain worse than anything I've ever been through, He reached down and held me. I didn't expect it much less deserve it. I felt Loved and comforted by my Maker. The creator of the universe took time to spend with a lost sheep like me. Once again, I was humbled. It was wonderful! It was absolutely life changing! For the first time any many years, I felt hope. I felt joy! I had completely forgotten what that felt like. At the time of this writing, I am free from things that were in my life that were slowly destroying it. I'm a happier, healthier, and more loving person. In turn, it's strengthened the bonds with all those around me and had some splash effect improving the quality of life their lives as well. All this thanks to His Love, mercy, and power.
Glory be to You Jesus, My God, My Savior.
What an awesome God we have! Thank You for this awesome gift of Love. May I accept without inhibition and give it without agenda. May I Love others as You have Loved me. May I always use it for Your kingdom and for Your glory. Amen.
