What Love is.

In Galatians 5 verse 22 Paul outlines the fruit of the Holy Spirit of God. This same Holy Spirit is what God sent to Earth after Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension took place in order to guide the Christians as they go through life. The first fruit mentioned is Love. OH my what a fruit! That is probably the most potent and sought after 4 letter word in the English language and of course it's infinite translations across the globe most of which are not 4 letters. But I digress. The meaning is the same and that is what is so important.

Now I'm not talking about the selfish I want you please want me back sort of love, I'm talking about true unyielding, unassuming, selfLESS, undying, always forgiving, consuming, beat back the lie of loneliness type of love. That is what Love is. That is the type of love people will spend their whole life looking for. Some people find it, some people never do, but don't stop searching for it, and still others give it up for a myth. It's real. It is very real. Christians should know it well, but we don't. Many of those who give up on finding such love claim Christ.

Now let me give you an example of this type of Love. There is a pastor, his name is Saeed Abedini, he is a Christian and he is in prison in Iran because of his faith. He has been beaten to within an inch of his life. He has been hospitalized and allowed to regain some of his strength, but he was returned to prison and has probably been poisoned either on purpose or because of his state of health his immune system can't handle life in prison. Now he is coughing up blood and will be fasting along side his muslim inmates as they celebrate Ramadan, which is a high holy Islamic holiday through which they fast and pray. Even though he is in the worst situation he could possibly be in he has spoken of Jesus to his fellow inmates and some have become Christians. He will be praying along side those who have beaten him and as he kneels beside them I'm sure he will be praying for them. That is Love.

(I would like to note that this man is an American and so is his wife who is desperately trying to get him back to the States to be with her and their children. Please pray for them.)

He is in the worst of the worst and yet he prays. He reaches out to those men around him and tells them about Jesus and how much they are loved by Him even though the mock and hit. Corre Tin Boom, Richard Wurmbrand, and others like them were prisoned for being Christians and treated to the worst atrocities that man can inflict on each other and yet... they prayed. I know they struggled. They tell you in their writings they struggled and saw their friends fail and yet... they prayed for their captors out of Love. Why? How? How can you pray good things for people who are treating you so bad? Jesus came to save the world through this Love and we beat him, mocked him, beat him more, nailed him on a tree, and hung him in the air to slowly suffocate to death and GOD didn't strike us down because of the LOVE he has for HIS creation and the sacrifice that had to be made so we could KNOW that Love.

Love has nothing in common with lust or sex.

This is what Love is. Love is a verb. Love is the action of placing others in front of yourself without loosing yourself. Love is giving without expecting. Love is overlooking the faults and finding the good. Love is being there even if you aren't wanted. Love acts when others refuse. Love sees past the faults. Love does not care about differences.

Love is joy. Love is peace. Love is patience. Love is kindness. Love is gentleness. Love is faithfulness. Love is self control. Paul even calls it the greatest.

I honestly have no better way to sum it up than 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes,what is in part disappears. 

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

As a Christian and as a wife and mother I search and seek this type of love. When I became better aware of all that it brings and stopped fighting for everything that kept me from knowing it... it changed me... and I pray that it keeps changing me because what is on the other side, even from a distance, looks pretty darn good. 

Don't be Silent

Leigha