All You Need is Love

We were studying C.S. Lewis' "Till We Have Faces" in my English class and a few weeks ago my teacher had something along the lines of, "When does love turn into hate, or can it?" written on the board and it struck me in a different manner than I expected.  At first I, of course, began to think of the times I had thought I loved someone and once hurt by that person began to "hate" them, but then I realized that I don't think I really ever loved them in the first place? Well, maybe I had the first fruits of what I thought love was but I had not grown to the point of where I could get hurt by that person and still love them just the same.  I believe that kind of love takes time and experience.  You may believe otherwise but, in my opinion, love that is true, like the love of our Lord does not have room for hate.  It is such a shame what relationships have become now a days because love is thrown around to the point that it has no more significance than "I think you're hot" or something shallow like that.  Girls say it to their friends and even use abbreviations for it more often than spelling the real word out and maybe that shouldn't matter? But I tend to think it does because once a word is changed into a new way of spelling to fit text lingo I feel like it has lost some of it's magic.  We learn how to love from Christ.  Our imperfect love will never be able to last past the first fight if we try and do it on our own! I hate confrontation and would push away the minute I sensed it in a relationship, however, I never knew that confrontation actually brings me closer to that person until someone finally figured out my secret and held on tight.  It is a wonderful thing when you find someone who shows you they love you by never letting go.  So many times before I was convinced fighting meant the end of a relationship with either a friend or boyfriend, but it has taken me times to realize that fighting is healthy if anything! Of course, if you fight constantly there is probably a problem there, but in the grand scheme of things I have finally learned how to fight! How weird is it that I am excited about this? My friend told me that there were two ways to fight, dirty and clean.  Clean is the healthy kind of fighting between two people who have self control and just need to let off some built up steam.  Dirty is the kind of fighting that is set out to hit below the belt and hurt the other persons feelings.  I think we all fight clean when we are younger and then realize what an effect we can have on other people feelings and begin to take advantage.  It is not until we are older that we take responsibility for others feelings and consciously yell the points we need to get across.  This kind of fighting runs parallel with love, I think, because real love does not seek out opportunities to hurt the beloved's feelings.  It has come to my attention that we should all be a little more controlled in our anger and ask ourselves what kind of fighter we become. 

" We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19 I am convinced that since Christ's love never gives up on us no matter how many times we reject Him, our love should persevere for other people.  This is the hardest thing for me to do though, because I find myself wanting to choose who I love and who I let go.  I used to think selfishly about this and see myself putting so much into someone without getting anything in return, and therefore, want to give up on loving that person because in my eyes "it just wasn't worth it."  Who am I to choose who "deserves" my love and who doesn't? Luke 6:32 states it perfectly, "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them." How are we to learn how to love like Christ loves us by only loving those who are the easiest?  We must love each other because we are all made in the image of God. However, my fault in such a pursuit of loving other people was that I was not seeking love from the right source.  I was giving all my love and energy that I had received from the Lord away to other people without going back to the fountain and refreshing myself, in other words, I was not filling back up with Christ after each time I gave away.  This is the dangerous mistake so many of us make and without replenishing we will swiftly fall down a pit of despair because human love will never satisfy the soul like Christ's love can.  

The Lord has surrounded me with people who truly love me and that is why I am so pumped about such a topic.  He has shown me, through other people, that love is determined and will not give up after the first obstacle.  Throughout the younger years of our lives, people come and go as they please and while I am just now graduating high school, I have been blessed to have a few solid rocks.  I know they love me because they don't allow our friendship/relationship to wither away.  It is a beautiful thing to be pursued, especially by someone you love and thank goodness I have a Lord who continues to pull me back to Him.