Sometimes it is important to give up on love. Before you get all up in arms…please hear me out.
I used to think being loved was the greatest thing to think about, but now I know love is never satisfied just thinking about it.
Let me clarify further: sometimes it is important to give up on love as a thought and move it to a demonstration. Go ahead. Be honest.
How many times have you talked about love, but never practiced it?
How many times have you said we ought to love everyone, but when push came to shove you “cliqued” with others like yourself?
How many times have you said, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world/Red and yellow, black and white…” then said prejudicial comments regarding another’s skin?
How many times have you boldly stated “I love you” only to shrink back from connecting or giving yourself away to someone different from you?
GUILTY AS CHARGED!
There are so many more questions I could ask (as I’m sure you can also), but I think you get the gist of it all. Love was never meant to be something we dissect, discuss, dismember, delegate, or discontinue doing; it was meant to be “fleshed out.” I may be wrong in this since I don’t know God’s mind, but I have this sneaking suspicion He may be tired of hearing us talk about love. We do enough talking and signifying and saying nothing (to quote a song from my teen years).
IT. IS. TIME. LOVE. BECAME. MORE. THAN. TALK.
LOVE. MUST. BECOME. ACTION.
That is the point of the quote from Love Does by Bob Goff. It is the kind of love Jesus talks about (and lives). Love that never tires of finding ways to express itself.
How did you answer those questions? If I may be so bold: what are some ways that you are expressing love to others? Have you found yourself on the “I’m tired” end of love? I’d like to hear your thoughts.
This is one of my series of posts on the book Love Does by Bob Goff. I recommend it highly. See here and here. Would you like to join me in this series? Feel free to let me know if you are. I would be more than pleased to highlight your blog.
Man, I have tried to love. Yet I came away damaged and, I fear, beyond repair. Love takes such an investment and I oftentimes feel that I have nothing left to give. Certainly I feel without strength, impotent, so tired and drained that I just can’t mount another charge up that hill. At least not yet.
Sometimes love does hurt Daniel and leaves us scarred. Don’t give up though.
Hi Bill,
I’ve had to stretch myself in this area and I have had no reputation or image to uphold.
There’s no doubt in my mind that we as believers can love like this. Love is from God the Bible says. God is love. We are commanded by Jesus to love one another. I Corinthians 13 gives us the idea and the understanding of this kind of love.
There’s no doubt we can break down some of the barriers that people face by our own actions and conduct. It’s not only racial prejudice, it’s the poor, the disabled, the old, the abuse of the young, countering the conduct of the wicked and deceitful among us.
We can be the light. There are no other people that can do this like believers in Jesus Christ. That’s why we need to stop making excuses. Accusing and then excusing ourselves the Bible says.
I can definitely relate to Bob Goff saying that he wants to be with people. The problem is in our current mortal state we can only be in one place at a time. This is going to change. We are going to put on immortality. We are going to have this priviledge. We are going to judge the world, we are going to judge angels the Bible says in I Corinthians.
We won’t be doing this if we can’t get ourselves in concert with God. He gives us absolutely everything we need to follow him. If we choose not to, it’s our own decision. We will pay the cost of this decision. The world is corrupt and a sewer pit. We need to realize this and choose the things of God. What is ahead is amazing and beyond our ability to understand its glory and honor.
Stretch is a good word to use Linda. Loving others does cause us to stretch.
I definitely find it hard to love others different than me, mainly because I’m too often with people just like me.
it is easy to hang around those who are like us rather than those who are different.
Sometimes it is harder to love people just like you as opposed to those who are different… *shrug*
Love can be hard. When I read chap 13 of 1 cor I am challenged because I know I fall short so often. Yet I find the more I grow closer to Christ the easier it becomes to love- it becomes more natural to place others first and to move out of our comfort zones and act.
However, I still fail. Thank God for His grace!
Trying to live out I Cor.13 is proof positive that love is hard. I am also grateful for His grace.
I find myself on the tired end of it when I’m pouring out and out and out and don’t get poured back into by someone else. I don’t think we were made to go it alone with God all the time…that’s why He told us to not neglect gathering together. He knew we would need the encouragement of each other as we pour ourselves out to serve.
You state a common problem that often way too often Jason. Giving and giving and not receiving. Some like to be super spiritual and say “you should continue giving” but human limitations kick in. We do need encouragement and the church should be the one place we get it. However….
I have to agree with Jason. I really pour myself out so many times, and yet recieve nothing in return, and that’s with my friends. Makes me sometimes wonder if it’s worth it.
My quote for the day: Love is the most liberating freedom-loss of all. (Timothy Keller) Right now that expresses itself in doing housework for a family that’s all working–although I work too! It’s easy to slip into loving them when they’re cutely asleep but that’s just an emotion. Jesus’ sacrificial way is much harder.
Like the quote Meg. I also agree on the loving them in reality and not the cutesy stage.
Thanks for visiting my blog. Curious how you heard about it.
Hi Bill,
I’m thinking that love expresses itself in some of the most ordinary things. For example, the kids two doors away ask me to come out and play. I have a decision to make. Can I spare a half hour to an hour of my time? Yesterday I said ‘no’, other days I say ‘yes’.
If they are looking for a snack (sometimes it’s because they may not have any food in their house to eat) I look in my fridge or my cupboard and say ‘I’ve got some apples, do you want to have one’?
These are simple examples but I believe they make a difference for someone. I’m not putting them first, I’m sharing my resources and my time.
The Bible says we are to ‘love our neighbor AS ourselves’. not above ourselves. There are times when I give the neighbor kids my last few cookies in the house. But this is not a sacrifice. I have money in the bank, I have a car to drive me to the grocery store to buy some more cookies.
They do not have these resources. It seems only fitting and right that I extend myself a bit for them at times. This develops relationship. This is the crux for most people. They don’t want the relationship part. They may want to help, but from a distance.
This is what I think many believers are struggling with. The relationship part of helping. This is why believers are eager to go on mission trips to another country. After three weeks they go home, well out of the reach of those they were ‘helping’. I’m not dissing missionary trips. They are needed and a wonderful experience. (I haven’t been on one, but I’ve heard many, many testimonies from those who have).
I think Linda you hit on something that is important. We often think love has to be something big. Not so. Something as “ordinary” as being a friend to a child fills that spot. Something as little as helping someone in need. You make a good point.
Loving will tired you out for sure but an ongoing, deep and passionate connection to the Father
will give us the strength to love completely. The more I have of Him in my heart…the more I can love.
Well said Jay. I like your last line especially.
I’m guilty of talking and not following up. It’s easier to care about the things I want which is selfishness, the opposite of love…
Love is action, not feelings…
Tough questions to be sure…
I am guilty also Floyd. You certainly don’t hold the corner on that. I didn’t like asking and answering those questions either.
Lately God has been teaching me how to love. As well as showing me that being prejudiced about someone never helps to establish a relationship. (Guilty as charged there… And so glad that God got through my elephant-thick skull and got some sense into me so I can now enjoy a friendship with a girl who used to drive me nuts).
Oh, about skin color – I often wonder how to show appreciation for dark-skinned people. I genuinely loooove it – they always look so cool! But whenever I see someone with dark skin, I reize that my admiration for the skin color may be misinterpreted. *sigh*
*realize, not reize.
Sadly, I am guilty of those things, but God has been working on me about loving people. As you know, He is taking me out of my comfort zone to serve with people I don’t know and I find it joyful. I believe God is giving me the joy from serving others. I love to serve my family & anyone. That’s why I say I’m guilty of being Martha from the bible. My husband bought me a ring with the I Cor 13:13 inscribed on it. Had to use my reading glasses & a magnifying glass to make it out at first, ha! But now that verse is pretty much inscribed on my heart, when I start to grumble, I repeat that verse & try to find someone to love for the day, either by serving them or praying for them.
Have also experienced the tired end of love, just worn out from loving so much, again, something God has been helping me through and I try to give that kind of love over to Him immediately when I feel tired & drained.
Yep, I’ve certainly been guilty. I’ve said I was busy, I was lacking, I didn’t have enough–plenty of excuses to go around. It takes a conscious effort and intentionality to break out of that. It’s what I want for my life and I try to move in every day with my family, congregation, and community. Great thoughts, Bill.