What is Love?

Sunday, September 04, 2005

A popular song by some one-hit wonder band asks the question: "What is love?" I know this because I secretly have Much Music Dance Mix '95 hidden away in my CD collection and sometimes I pull it out and listen to Total Eclipse of the Heart. I usually just skip over the other tracks and get right down to business, but today I skimmed the other titles. Along with the 'Macarena' and '1, 2, 3 Train with Me', is the song, 'What is Love'. I started thinking: What is love? This is something that I have been struggling with lately and I sat down today to really figure things out. Or, at least attempt to.
Lately, I have been on this vocabulary craze inspired by a friend. A word of the day. The definitions have been interesting to learn and attempting to use the words in a sentence fills me with frisson. So, I went on dictionary.com to see how love is defined...maybe not the best way to start, but I figured a literary definition couldn't hurt. Love is defined as: "a deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness." I'm sure this is not the only definition, but that's what came up first. Still, this definition didn't satisfy me. I have a quote on my window that says "All you need is love" -John Lennon. This definition really didn't make me believe what John had to say, and so I continued to search deeper.

I'm sure a lot of you who know me probably think I turned in my Bible to the chapter they use at weddings because all it talks about is love: 1 Corinthians 13. I did just that. This chapter of love uses a completely different definition. I'm told that this Greek word for love that is used here talks about a "selfless concern for the welfare of others that is not called forth by any quality of lovableness in the person love, but is the product of a will to love in obedience to God's command."
1 Corinthians 13 goes on to describe this kind of love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares for others more than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always, "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of the truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Amazing stuff!

In the movie Saved, there is a scene where this ‘Christian’ girl yells "I am filled with Christian love" and then proceeds to throw her Bible at a friend. To this the friend replies, "This [the Bible] is not a weapon." This really hit me. So often I fail to ‘love’ others around me the way 1 Corinthians 13 describes. I throw my Bible at them, rather than loving the way Jesus would have. Although, I am still struggling with how to define love, or I guess my interpretation of true love…I feel okay with not having all the answers right now. I guess the main thing I realized through all this struggling, is that it is not the definition that is important. I just need to continue to a) Love God and b) Love others to the best of my ability, each day, everyday. Because love trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end.

posted by Rachel Pede @ 12:15 AM   0 comments