Ah February, the month of Love. This month provides that one special day a year to set aside everything else and focus on that special someone in your life.
An obligatory day to remind your Boo how much you love them and how lost you would be in this life without them. At least, you better have or you’re probably sleeping on the couch for the foreseeable future.
Love is a word that gets thrown around a lot in this day and age.
“OMG I love you!”
“I LOVE mint chocolate chip ice cream.”
“I love the Dallas Cowboys, even though they hate me.”
It’s a word that can have so many meanings that it really does beg the question, to quote the great Haddaway song, “What is Love?”
What does it mean to truly love someone?
What does it mean to truly be and feel loved? This month I’d like to explore that.
If you look up the definition of Love in the dictionary you will find at least 10 different descriptions of what the word means.
Love is perhaps the strongest emotion a person can feel for someone else. It is an emotion that can create the strongest possible bond between two people while simultaneously leading to the feeling of the strongest pain if someone you love betrays you.
Love can lead someone to incredible feats of bravery or courage and can also lead to some of the worst decisions when that love is not reciprocated.
Love is more than just an emotion that we share with our significant other, though. One of the definitions of Love describes a “brotherly love.” In Greek, this is described as “Phileo” love.
This is where Philadelphia gets its nickname “The city of brotherly love.”
This type of love is what creates the bond of friendship. It is what binds entire groups of people together.
From communities and countries to sports fans. When we feel this type of love, we feel like we belong to something bigger than ourselves.
This type of love is why I love being a part of a small community. For the most part, everyone in our community has created a bond over the love we share for our little town.
We actively work together to help build up our community and make it the best that it can be. This type of love is what brings so many people together in times of tragedy and grief. It is a vital part of our lives.
Any time I think of Love, I’m always reminded of a time in my life when I was at my lowest.
I was in a mental place where I didn’t feel like I deserved love or anything good in life. I was in such a low place in life that I hadn’t been to church in months and I was spiraling down a dark path.
Thankfully, I finally decided to show up one Sunday morning. During the “greet your neighbor” portion of the service, my good friend and mentor, Rob, immediately came up to me and gave me a big hug.
The words he said to me struck me in my heart.
He looked me in the eyes and said, “I love you and God loves you. Keep coming back.”
He didn’t know it, and probably still doesn’t know it, but his words created an inflection point in my life.
He woke me up inside. With a simple hug and statement like that, he reminded me that no matter where I am in life, there are people who love and care for me and most importantly, that God still loves me.
This is such a simple but important reminder that so many people need in life. We all go through ups and downs and can easily feel lost in this world.
We can easily feel like the decisions we’ve made make us unworthy of the good things that this life has for us.
What we must remember is that no matter where we are in life, we have a God that loves us more than anything we can imagine and that He is always there for us. In the Greek language, this is called “Agape” love.
It’s an unconditional love that doesn’t falter at any point. We don’t have to do anything to earn it, but rather just merely must accept it.
As humans, this is something that is probably difficult for many to understand or comprehend. The closest we can come to this type of love is the love we have for our children and family members and even then, it can be a difficult thing to do.
But, for God, this love never fails, and it never gives up on us. It is there no matter where we are.
Through Rob, I was also introduced to what has become my favorite verse in the Bible.
In chapter 22 of the book of Matthew, Jesus is being tested by the Pharisees.
They are trying to trip Him up and get Him to say something that they can hold against Him.
The Pharisees ask Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment?” In verses 37-39 Jesus replies, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’”
This is such an important lesson for all of us and, unfortunately, I believe so many people miss it. Jesus is telling us that we are to love first and foremost.
It doesn’t matter who they are, where they come from or what they look like. We are called to love them. Love God, Love Others.
It’s such a simple statement but is incredibly difficult to follow through with. In a world full of hate and division, loving our neighbors can seem like an impossible task. Jesus doesn’t say
this is easy, but he does say that it’s necessary.
I believe Jesus is saying that if we approach every person or situation with the understanding that our job is to Love First, then we can put ourselves in a position to show not only our love to people, but God’s love for them as well.
This is the goal. We are called to Love. We are called to spread the Love of God and the joy of having a relationship with Him.
So, that is the challenge.
Face each day with the foundation of the Love of Christ. Face each situation with the Love that we are called to share and see how it makes a difference in not only your life, but the lives of those that you interact with.
Tell someone you love them. Remind them of God’s unwavering love for them. In a world full of darkness, share the light of God’s great love.
Dallas Slay is the president of the Tioga ISD Board of Trustees.