Real Love

You know, I think most of us believe we've got "love" down.  We know what it feels like to be loved.  We know what it feels like to be in love.  And to love someone, well that's just a matter of taking care of their needs in the right time and place.  Right?  Easy enough.

Wrong.  Lately I've been learning a hard, but super important lesson.  I've heard it before, but it's just now sinking in.  Love isn't what happens when things are going well and life is hunky-dory. Love is what happens when we have to respond to others in the midst of our lives crumbling around us.  Love is hard, flat out hard.  If it seems easy, we must not be doing it right.

Jesus offered extravagant love to us, but it cost him something.  Actually it cost him everything, his life.  Real love comes at a cost.  There is a sacrifice that must be present for true love to exist.  

There are so many opportunities in my life right now for real love, love that costs me something.  And I find myself faltering in those moments of opportunity. I'm getting bogged down in what it means to me, and how it makes me feel and how will it change my life.  That's not real love, that's selfish love, that's me-love.  And it's not what I'm called to. I've been called to love sacrificially, and I'm not making that choice right now.  

To quote You've Got Mail "'Is that why it costs so much?' 'No, that's why it's worth so much.'" The cost denotes the worth.  If love is worth it, which it is, I should be willing to accept the cost.

So can someone pass me a wrench?  I need an attitude adjustment.  I need a love adjustment.  I need to retune my eyes to see the needs of others instead of my own personal needs.  Love is costly, and it's about time I start living that way and giving that way.