Love

Love. A simple four letter word that is anything but simple. If you're from my generation, you might remember the movie, "Love Story", from the 1970's, and the famous line that came from the movie, "Love is never having to say you're sorry." Everyone was saying it, but I just couldn't get it! What do they mean love is never having to say you're sorry. How lame! If you love someone, you would want to tell them you're sorry when you do something wrong or hurt them. That is insane. What are they talking about? Do they mean that if you really love someone they will know you are sorry? Or, are they saying the person you love would never require you to say you're sorry? I have to admit, I just never got it! Until today...

Whether they knew it or not, they were talking about the kind of love that many of us have never experienced. The kind of love that is only possible through God. It's the kind of love that Paul wrote about in Corinthians ("love is patient, love is kind...) and again in Romans. It is the kind of love that we can only experience with Jesus Christ living in and through us. The reason love means never having to say you're sorry is because love never causes hurt. It is only when we (or someone else) act without love that hurt occurs. Funny thing. I've read it many times, but just never got it. So for today, I am going to try to act only out of love. Hmmm. I wonder if I can make it until tomorrow before I need to tell someone I'm sorry. Well, here goes.

"Love never hurts a neighbor, so loving is obeying all the law".
Romans 13:10

My prayer:

Lord, thank you for making it all so simple (though often hard for me). Thank you that I don't have to memorize a list of do's and don'ts; that all I have to remember is to love. Show me how to love you as deeply as you love me; and, to love others, even when they don't seem very loveable. When I fail, give me the wisdom and grace to acknowledge my failures and to ask forgiveness from those that I have failed to love. Amen.