But The Greatest Of These Is Love

I've been thinking the past few days about something dear to everyone who has a heart...love. It's pretty much spanned a bunch of different things that have to do with it and I'll just share a few musings of the sort.

1. I led worship on a retreat this weekend and I heard our youth pastor say, "It's really easy to love someone who loves you back." I have always agreed with that, but I'm not sure I've ever heard it spoken. I feel like it's every person's desire to be loved and I believe that when we love, we love to be loved back.

But love doesn't have to be reciprocated. There are so many instances when it isn't. We've developed this idea that in order to love, there needs to be love in return. This is simply untrue. The ultimate love is that which expects nothing in return. I am praying that this kind of love resonates in my heart.

2. I was reading a part of one of my favorite books today called The Perks of Being a Wallflower. There's a character named Bill who is the main character's teacher. Bill says, "Charlie, we accept the love we think we deserve." There are deep deep issues in this statement. So many people believe they are unloveable. They deny the love they don't think they deserve. Everyone needs and deserves love. Imagine if Hitler had been shown Christ's love as a child. Would things have happened the way they did? Since everyone deserves love, what if we just gave everyone the love they don't expect? What if we showed love to people who feel they will never be loved? The thief, the beggar, the liar, the rapist, the homosexual, the list goes on. What can possibly go wrong if we showed everyone love?

3. I haven't felt camaraderie as strong as this weekend in a long time. I speak for the guys on the retreat when I say that we seriously bonded like crazy this weekend. There were some major breakthroughs and I felt like I gained some really good relationships. I feel like our student ministry at The Springs is growing and growing and growing closer together and it's starting to feel like a community instead of a ton of individuals. I'm excited to see how everything continues to move forward and the times my friends and I have ahead of us. This is love.

Everything I've mentioned about love is so much easier said than done. Just like Paul says, we're battling two sides: our spirit and our flesh. It takes God to love someone past what you think you can. You can't love someone without expectation without bringing God into it. So my prayer is that I never leave God out of any situation.

What can you do to show someone love they don't expect?